State of the art of carbon molecular sieves supported on tubular ceramics for gas separation applications

During recent years, research into alternative power generation and less polluting vehicles has been directed towards the fabrication of compact and efficient devices using hydrogen fuel cells. As a compact viable proposal, membrane reactors (MR) have been studied as means of providing a fuel cell with an on-board supply device for pure hydrogen streams obtained by reforming hydrocarbons. However, the development of MRs is strongly dependant on the membrane having high permeation flux and high selectivity ratios towards H-2 in a mixture of gases. To meet this need, carbon membranes are proposed materials, which have pores that are the same size as the kinetic diameters of syngases. These would provide an alternative to polymers, metals and ceramics in MR applications. Moreover, a tubular shape is a highly recommended configuration for achieving a compact and large reaction surface area. However, it is not easy to obtain a supported and amorphous carbon layer from polymer pyrolysis because the fabrication methods, the type of precursor material, characteristics of the support and pyrolysis conditions are all closely connected. The combination of all these factors and the stability problems of carbon membranes have limited the use of carbon molecular sieves (CMS) in large-scale applications. This review attempts to provide an overview of the use of carbon membranes in MRs for gas separation. It also reviews the advances in the materials, fabrication methods and characterisation techniques of specific supported carbon molecular sieve membranes that have been supported on tubular carriers so they can take advantage of the high permeation and selectivity values previously reported for unsupported CMS. (C) 2009 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.