Gas separation membranes
Gas separation through membranes is becoming an important operation of chemical engineer, trying to substitute some traditional separation technologies with evident advantages in terms of efficiency and energy saving.
The development of new materials capable of separating different gas species with increasingly higher selectivity will lead to the modification and improvement of several processes in different industrial sectors, from petrochemical to the green chemistry.
Main projects
Hydrogen separation from syngas
- Stainless-steel-supported thin-film Palladium membranes preparation through electroless plating
- Design and realization of an experimental set up for membrane testing at high temperature and pressure
- Membrane testing for permeability and selectivity measurement
- Separation process modelling
Environmental analysis of fossil-fuels-derived hydrogen as energy carrier
- Definition of scenarios of hydrogen production from fossil fuels trough coal gasification of methane steam reforming followed by membrane separation
- Definition of scenarios of hydrogen utilization as energy carrier (vehicle, cogeneration, microcogeneration)
- Application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology
Publications
- M. Bientinesi, L. Petarca, H2 Separation from Gas Mixtures through Palladium Membranes on Metallic Porous Supports, 10th International Conference on Chemical & Process Engineering (IcheaP-10), Florence, May 8-11, 2011
- M. Bientinesi, L. Petarca, Preparation of thin-film Pd membranes for H2 separation from synthesis gas and detailed design of a permeability testing unit, Hardcover book, NovaPublisher, 2010
- M. Bientinesi, Hydrogen separation from synthesis gas through membranes, Ph.D. Thesis, Università di Pisa, 2010