PNNL

Abstract

One of the enabling technologies required for high efficiency, low emissions fossil energy conversion is the development of sealing materials for hermetically joining the inorganic membranes used in high temperature gas separation to the underlying support structure of the separation device. The sealing materials must not only be compatible with both the membrane and support materials, but must also be physically and chemically stable at the temperatures, pressures, gas atmospheres, and thermal cycling conditions typical of the electrochemical separation processes employed with gasified coal and air. The types of membrane materials that are being considered and developed by the Office of Fossil Energy (FE) include microporous alumina and mixed ionic/electronic conducting oxides (MIECs) for the separation of hydrogen from coal gas and syngas and perovskite and brownmillerite MIECs for the separation of oxygen from air.