A novel CAU-10-H MOF membrane for hydrogen separation under hydrothermal conditions

Hydrogen selective membranes with excellent hydrothermal stability are highly demanded in ethanol steam reforming. For this goal, a novel CAU-10-H MOF membrane has been prepared on α-Al2O3 disc for the first time by in situ solvothermal synthesis. The as-prepared CAU-10-H membrane shows high selectivity for H2 with mixed gas separation factors of 10.5 and 74.7 for H2/CO2 and H2/CH4 binary mixtures, respectively, indicating the successful synthesis of CAU-10-H membrane with high-quality. The performance of the CAU-10-H membrane for hydrogen separation in the presence of steam was systematically investigated by variation of feed pressure (2–5 bar) and temperature (150–300 °C). The CAU-10-H membrane is selective for H2, with separation factors of 11.1 and 5.67 for H2 over CO2 and H2O, respectively. More importantly, the CAU-10-H membrane is still structure-preserving and hydrogen-selective after long-term test under hydrothermal conditions. These results demonstrate that the CAU-10-H membrane is an excellent candidate for hydrogen separation in steam reforming of ethanol in a membrane reactor.