The NanoMem project aims to develop porous gas separation membranes to recover hydrogen injected into natural gas for transportation and storage and to separate carbon dioxide from gas emissions from the cement industry, both at low temperatures. The ideal membranes should be as thin as possible to maximize gas flux, mechanically robust so they do not crack, and have a well-defined pore size to achieve high separation efficiency. Current membranes do not meet all these requirements. Recently, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and zeolite-based "nanosheets" have been discovered as one of the most promising solutions. Due to their well-defined in-plane pores, only certain gases can penetrate these sub-nanometre-thick layers. However, the fabrication of such membranes with a homogeneous microstructure on porous ceramic supports remains a challenge. Our goal in this project is therefore to develop novel, robust, and easily scalable methods for the fabrication of such membranes.

https://www.werkstofftechnologien.de/projekte/nachwuchsfoerderung/nachwuchsgruppen-energietechnik/dr-marie-alix-pizzoccaro-zilamy-nanomem

EU transport and power generation accounts approximately each for one-third of all CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion. While current decarbonisation measures are focused principally on two alternatives: electrification and fuel switching, these are not suitablefor the harder-to-abate sectors, such as heavy-duty road transport or decentralised energy production due to payload, autonomy and/or fuel supply requisites, among other issues. In fact, these sectors still rely on fossil fuels for 94% of its energy needs, constituting one of the main challenges to comply with the objectives of the Paris Agreement. These sectors require a system that allows to exploit the advantages of the use of liquid fuels, as are high energy density, fast refilling and easy transport, but bypassing the efficiency limitations and eliminating CO2 emissions. In addition, to tackle the alarming increase of GHG emissions and the rise of global temperature, it is necessary to deploy an effective solution in the short-medium term. Therefore, it is key not to depend on the construction of new infrastructures and be able to use the existing ones for the transport, storage and supply of liquid fuels. The main objective of ALL-IN Zero is to develop a multi-fuel system to generate electrical and mechanical power with zero emissions. This system will feed low, zero carbon or carbon-negative fuels like ammonia, natural gas, biogas or alcohols, into a Compact Membrane Reactor producing a common intermediate temporary energy vector to be consumed in situ by power generation systems such as internal combustion engines and fuel cells. ALL-IN Zero will accelerate decarbonisation earlier than other technologies, using available productive and supply chains, SoA technologies, and upstream and downstream treatments for mobile and stationary solutions.

https://allinzero.eu/

In order to sustainably meet the world's ever-increasing demand for energy and material goods, the use of renewable resources is needed in the fuel and chemical industries. This will be essential to maintain the prominent position of the European chemical industry and to achieve the ambitious EU 2030 targets on climate change, process efficiency and safety. 46 and 36% of energy consumption in Germany and the Netherlands, respectively, is attributable to industry. Improving industrial energy efficiency is therefore an important task for research. The "Amazing" project directly addresses several funding priorities of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The focus is on the sector-specific energy optimisation of existing industrial processes as well as the efficient use of secondary forms of energy and the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy sources. However, the direct use of renewable electricity in the chemical industry (power to chemicals) is not easy, as the majority of the heat needed to carry out chemical reactions is generated by burning fossil fuels. Replacing large-scale high-temperature cracking processes with electrically driven thermocatalytic activation of alkanes to produce chemical building blocks (e.g. alkenes) is a promising way to reduce CO₂ emissions. An alternative to the energy-intensive standard process is to combine mixed ionic-electronic conducting (MIEC) membranes with metal-supported catalysts. In the Amazing project, we aim to develop additive manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing to develop self-supporting catalytic membrane reactor systems that exploit the full potential of RDH membrane reactors. The additive manufacturing routes used promise easy upscaling to full commercial systems.

The aim is to use additive manufacturing to produce a membrane component that ensures optimised gas flow and has few, well-defined joints. The connection of supply lines to the component is also realised. The developed product is quantitatively evaluated on the basis of its performance with regard to the separation of pure oxygen from the air. Subsequently, the product is available for academic and/or industrial research on membrane reactors.

The project will develop an electrochemical membrane reactor that performs H₂O/CO₂ co-electrolysis at medium or high temperature with co-ionic (H⁺ and O₂-) ceramic conductors (ci-EMRs) for efficient conversion/storage of renewable energy into synthetic fuels. The main focus is on the temperature range of 400-500°C, where the anionic electrolysis of H₂O to H⁺ and the conversion of CO₂ on the other side of the membrane, produces chemicals/energy carriers such as methanol, methane, or at higher temperatures, synthesis gas. The functional layer is a 10-40 µm thick, ceramic proton-conducting membrane that transports H⁺ through the grid at higher temperatures. On the German side, the focus will be on the development of the membrane structures, as well as the development of improved proton-conducting ceramic materials and suitable starting powders. The main focus will be on the production of the ceramic membrane structure using 3D printing. This technology is by no means state of the art for the necessary, highly complex ceramics, but it promises enormous potential in terms of cost-effective adjustment of an optimal microstructure. For comparison purposes, structures will be produced by sequential film casting. The Greek side will work on process engineering and application-oriented electrochemical characterisation in the project. This project addresses the problem of energy storage with a growing share of renewable energies in the German energy system (Energiewende). The aim is to develop alternative and efficient processes for the production of synthetic fuels. If successful, the processes will also be highly innovative for the production of important basic chemicals. The project topic involves some risks and is therefore not yet being pursued to any great extent by industry.

Forschungszentrum Jülich - Press releases - 3D Printing to Make Synthetic Fuels More Efficient and Cheaper (fz-juelich.de)

The aim of this project is to identify the cause of the significant permeation rate at low electron conductor fractions in CGO-based composite membranes with spinels as electron conducting phase and to use the comprehensive understanding of the physical properties thus gained so that the ambipolar conductivity (and thus the permeability) of this material system can be maximised. We assume grain boundary phases or positively acting space charge zones at phase boundaries as the cause. The success of the material development will be tested in a membrane reactor on tablets as well as on thin, supported membrane layers with catalytically active surface layers as a function of temperature and pO2 gradient (driving force).