Evaluations of hydrogen permeation on TiN-5 wt.%Ni membrane by spark plasma sintering

The TiN-5 wt.%Ni membrane was researched for gasification of coal technique, separating hydrogen from fossil fuel. In general, Pd and Pd-based alloy membranes of separating hydrogen were reported to have the good property of hydrogen selectivity at high temperature, but they has some problems such as hydrogen embrittlement and high material costs. Therefore, materials with good properties of hydrogen selectivity are needed instead of Pd. In this research, we fabricated membranes for hydrogen permeation that are highly resistant to acids, chemically steady, and composed of the economical substance, TiN. Our laboratory investigated hydrogen selectivity. TiN powder was milled for 30, 60, and 240 min by a vibration mill, respectively. Afterwards, the samples underwent operate spark plasma sintering and was characterized by XRD, BET, and SEM. Also, hydrogen selectivity was measured by Sievert’s type hydrogen permeation membrane equipment. In this report, the hydrogen permeability of the TiN-5 wt.%Ni membrane was measured to be 7.8 × 10−8, 1.7 × 10−7, and 1.4 × 10−7 mol/m·s·Pa1/2 at 473, 573, and 673K under 0.2 MPa H2 atmosphere, respectively.