Sensitivity of Material, Microstructure and Operational Parameters on the Performance of Asymmetric Oxygen Transport Membranes: Guidance from Modeling

Kai Wilkner*, Robert Mücke, Stefan Baumann, Wilhelm Albert Meulenberg, Olivier Guillon

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
59 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Oxygen transport membranes can enable a wide range of efficient energy and industrial applications. One goal of development is to maximize the performance by the improvement of the material, microstructural properties and operational conditions. However, the complexity of the transportation processes taking place in such commonly asymmetric membranes impedes the identification of the parameters to improve them. In this work, we present a sensitivity study that allows identification of these parameters. It is based on a 1D transport model that includes surface ex-change, ionic and electronic transport inside the dense membrane, as well as binary diffusion, Knudsen diffusion and viscous flux inside the porous support. A support limitation factor is defined and its dependency on the membrane conductivity is shown. For materials with very high ambipo-lar conductivity the transport is limited by the porous support (in particular the pore tortuosity), whereas for materials with low ambipolar conductivity the transport is limited by the dense mem-brane. Moreover, the influence of total pressure and related oxygen partial pressures in the gas phase at the membrane’s surfaces was revealed to be significant, which has been neglected so far in permeation test setups reported in the literature. In addition, the accuracy of each parameter’s experimental determination is discussed. The model is well-suited to guiding experimentalists in de-veloping high-performance gas separation membranes.

Original languageEnglish
Article number614
JournalMembranes
Volume12
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Jun 2022

Keywords

  • binary friction model
  • MIEC
  • oxygen transport membrane
  • porous media
  • supported membrane

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