Experimental and Numerical Investigations of Ion Transport Membrane Reactors

Ion Transport Membranes (ITMs) hold the potential to improve the cycle efficiency and reduce the cost of oxy-combustion for power generation with carbon capture. In addition ITMs can be used for a host of other processes such as the production of syngas, gas separation (eg. CO2 , O2, or H2 separation), and the production of chemical feedstocks such as C2H4 and C2H6.

To further investigate the use of ITMs, we have established a multi-disciplinary research project and are broadly considering the following three topics:

(*) Combustion and fuel conversion: The Reacting Gas Dynamics Lab is seeking to better understand the coupling between fuel conversion and oxygen flux through detailed numerical and experimental investigations.
(*) Materials: The Electrochemical Energy Lab (Prof. Shao-Horn) is characterizing and developing novel ITM compositions and architectures to maximize membrane stability and flux, as well as investigating the fundamental processes governing (*) Systems and optimization: Professor Alexander Mitsos is developing tools to identify and optimize the integration of an ITM in a power cycle for maximum plant thermal efficiency.

Through intense collaboration between these three groups, as well as with our partners at the KFUPM in Saudi Arabia, this project follows a wholistic approach allowing the full breadth of the problem to be considered. This enables each group to further the state of the art in their respective field using tools and knowledge from the other groups. This collaboration includes activities such as cross-validation of measurements and simulation results, co-development of simulation tools considering the state-of-the-art from both materials and fuel-conversion aspects, definition of real-world constraints and goals based on considerations from each of the three fields.

We are developing new numerical and experimental tools, to investigate the fundamental thermochemical processes governing the use of ITMs for fuel processing and combustion. This complimentary approach enables in-house cross-validation, while at the same time providing higher fidelity knowledge than would be possible with either experimental on numerical investigations alone.