Methane steam reforming in a Pd–Ag membrane reformer: An experimental study on reaction pressure influence at middle temperature

In this experimental work, methane steam reforming (MSR) reaction is performed in a dense Pd–Ag membrane reactor and the influence of pressure on methane conversion, COx-free hydrogen recovery and COx-free hydrogen production is investigated. The reaction is conducted at 450 °C by supplying nitrogen as a sweep gas in co-current flow configuration with respect to the reactants. Three experimental campaigns are realized in the MR packed with Ni–ZrO catalyst, which showed better performances than Ni–Al2O3 used in a previous paper dealing with the same MR system. The first one is directed to keep constant the total pressure in both retentate and permeate sides of the membrane reactor. In the second case study, the total retentate pressure is kept constant at 9.0 bar, while the total permeate pressure is varied between 5.0 and 9.0 bar. As the best result of this work, at 450 °C and 4.0 bar of total pressure difference between retentate and permeate sides, around 65% methane conversion and 1.2 l/h of COx-free hydrogen are reached, further recovering 80% COx-free hydrogen over the total hydrogen produced during the reaction. Moreover, a study on the influence of hydrogen-rich gas mixtures on the hydrogen permeation through the Pd–Ag membrane is also performed and discussed.