Investigation on the Performance of Perovskite-type Ceramic Membrane Reactor for Partial Oxidation of Methane to Syngas

Ceramic materials of Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3δ (BSCFO) were prepared by an EDTA-citric acid complexing method and formed to disk-type shape to be applied in a membrane reactor. The performance of the membrane reactor loading with Ni/αAl 2O3 catalyst was studied for the partial oxidation of methane process. At the initial time, the oxygen permeation, methane conversion, and CO selectivity were closely dependent on nickel state in the catalyst (oxide state or Ni0). After 17 hours from the reaction starting time, the reaction condition was found to be steady state and oxygen permeation, methane conversion, and CO selectivity reached 9.3 ml/min. cm2, 80.5%, and 98.3% respectively. The performance of the membrane reactor of BSCFO at various temperatures was studied and good results were obtained; for example, at 950 °C, methane conversion and CO selectivity reached 98.5% and 98.2% respectively. The oxygen permeation was 11.6 ml/min.cm2 and increased about 5.1 times in comparison with the air-helium gradient. The results showed that the surface exchange kinetics had a significant role in the oxygen permeation.