Hydrogen production from urea wastewater using a combination of urea thermal hydrolyser–desorber loop and a hydrogen-permselective membrane reactor

This work presents novel application of palladium-based membrane in a wastewater treatment loop of urea plant for hydrogen production. Urea wastewater treatment loop is based on combined thermal hydrolysis–desorption operations. The wastewater of urea plant includes ammonia and urea which in the current treatment loop; urea decomposes to ammonia and carbon dioxide. The catalytic hydrogen-permselective membrane reactor is proposed for hydrogen production from desorbed ammonia of urea wastewater which much of it discharges to air and causes environmental pollution. Therefore hydrogen is produced from decomposition of ammonia on nickel–alumina catalyst bed simultaneously and permeates from reaction side to shell side through thin layer of palladium–silver membrane. Also a sweep gas is used in the shell side for increasing driving force. In this way, 4588 tons/yr hydrogen is produced and environmental problem of urea plant is solved. The membrane reactor and urea wastewater treatment loop are modeled mathematically and the predicted data of the model are consistent with the experimental and plant data that show validity of the model. Also the effects of key parameters on the performance of catalytic hydrogen-permselective membrane reactor such as the temperature, pressure, thickness of Pd–Ag layer, configuration of flow and sweep gas flow ratio were examined.