Chemical Engineering February 2012 - 19

BL Renewable Resources
GAS SEPARATION
MEMBRANE
SERVICE PROVIDERS
Medal division of Air Liquide
www.medal.airliquide.com
Air Products and Chemicals
www.airproducts.com
Pall Corp.
Praxair
www.pall.com
www.praxair.com
UOP, a Honeywell Company
www.uop.com
from refining petroleum in an effort to
meet the even-more-stringent cleanair
standards expected in the future.
For this reason, oxygen-transport
membrane technologies are being
examined closely by companies like
Praxair (Danbury, Conn.), which is
focusing on developing inorganic
membranes for some of these applications.
" These membranes will be
made of ceramic materials and will
be perfectly selective for oxygen, "
says Dante Bonaquist, executive director
for R&D at Praxair.
The first technology, which has recently
become commercially available,
is meant to replace small-scale packaged
oxygen cylinders for industrial
applications. Praxair developed oxygen
transport membranes made of ceramic
materials that can be used to produce
relatively small volumes of high-purity,
high-pressure oxygen as a replacement
for packaged oxygen, in which oxygen
is sourced from liquid oxygen and
packaged in cylinders at high pressure
and distributed (Figures 5 and 6). " The
oxygen transport membrane can be
used in a small scale unit that can be
plugged into the wall and run on electricity
to produce oxygen at high pressure
and high purity at the customer's
point of use so they wouldn't have to
change cylinders, but instead would
have oxygen continuously supplied
from this unit, " says Bonaquist.
The biggest benefit here, other than
convenience, is that the unit provides
" an absolutely constant oxygen purity
level " for relatively small applications.
One of these units would
replace up to ten full-size oxygen cylinders
per month.
The second application for oxygen
transport membranes is for the production
of synthesis gas (syngas) and
oxy-fuel combustions, which moves
the technology into the large-scale
and very large-scale arena. Traditionally
for the production of syngas
or oxyfuel, a separate oxygen supply
system was needed, such as a vacuum
pressure-swing adsorption unit for
producing oxygen, which is then fed
into the process to make the syngas or
into the combustion process.
With Praxair's development, the
oxygen transport membranes could
be integrated into the syngas production
unit or the oxyfuel combustion
application so that there is not a separate
oxygen supply system. " Oxygen
is taken out of the air, pulled across
the membrane and reacted with the
methane to create the driving force to
deliver the oxygen, " says Bonaquist.
" So we are effectively integrating the
oxygen supply with the application
itself to eliminate the need for separate
oxygen supply. This technology is
expected to be more readily available
within the next year.
Similarly, Air Products and Chemicals
(Allentown, Pa.) is working on developing
and scaling up its ITM (Ion
Transport Membrane) technology for
the production of oxygen and syngas.
ITM technology uses a ceramic material
which, under pressure and temperature,
ionizes and separates oxygen
molecules from air. No external
source of electrical power is required
in this process. ITM technology has
the potential to produce oxygen more
economically and efficiently, decrease
the oxygen plant footprint, and also
decrease the cooling water requirement
for most large oxygen-demand
applications, says Mark Kappes,
global business manager of Air Products
Prism membranes.
" Our next step in ITM Oxygen technology
is to have an operating 100ton/d
intermediate-scale test unit onstream
by the end of 2012, " he says.
While improvements to existing hydrogen
purification membranes are
underway, developments in the area of
entirely new materials for these membranes
are also on the horizon, which
is becoming more and more necessary
due to requirements for cleaner fuels
Hit the Road to
New Fields of Profit
Renewable resources open up many
opportunities to recover, process
and refi ne foodstuffs, but also to
substitute fossil fuels. Sustainable
treatment of natural resources is a
pressing need of the age we live in.
We now offer a platform for
forward-looking solutions by concentrating
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for oils and fats, starch, proteins,
fermentation products and biofuels
in our Business Line Renewable
Resources.
The Business Line Renewable
Resources remains your market expert
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while at the same time being a
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ideas and visions. We support
you with the latest process technology,
right from laboratory testing
through to implementation on
an industrial scale.
Your direct route to 24 / 7 service:
www.westfalia-separator.com / service
Liquids to Value
GEA Mechanical Equipment
GEA Westfalia Separator Group
Werner-Habig-Straße 1 · 59302 Oelde (Germany)
Phone +49 2522 77-0 · Fax +49 2522 77-1794
www.westfalia-separator.com
Circle 7 on p. 50 or go to adlinks.che.com/40264-07
RR-2-30-006
http://www.medal.airliquide.com http://www.airproducts.com http://www.pall.com http://www.praxair.com http://www.uop.com http://www.westfalia-separator.com http://www.westfalia-separator.com http://adlinks.che.com/40264-07
Chemical Engineering February 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering February 2012
