Description:
Reference #01277
The University of South Carolina is offering licensing opportunities for graphene-ceramic composites used for hydrogen separation membranes.
Background:
Hydrogen is produced in large quantities worldwide for applications in the fertilizer and petroleum industries. Metal-ceramic cermet composites such as nickel-ceramics have been widely used for high temperature hydrogen permeation membranes. These membranes are used for applications in hydrogen production and hydrogen separation. While the ceramic phase is the ionic conducting phase, nickel is the main electronic conducting phase for the mixed conduction in the Ni-ceramic cermet membrane. Such Ni-cermet tends to cause coarsening and sintering at high operating temperatures as well as experiencing serious volume change during redox cycles.
Invention Description:
This invention describes a method to fabricate high performance hydrogen permeation membranes that utilize carbon based phases such as graphene. These membranes would act as substitutes for the electronic conducting phase in the composite membrane in place of the metal phase.
Potential Applications:
This invention provides a method to solve cost and long term stability problems for state of the art metal-ceramic composite hydrogen permeation membranes. This would lead to lower costs with higher efficiency in the production of hydrogen.
Advantages and Benefits:
Membrane based hydrogen separation is currently realized by palladium based
membranes that are expensive and cannot be used at high temperature regimes (800° Celsius) where hydrogen is produced. The direct separation of hydrogen at high temperatures and pressures will considerably reduce the capital and energy costs in hydrogen production.