Manufacturing of Inorganic Membranes as Separator and Reactor

MSc Mini Project Proposal

For

MSs in Renewable Energy Engineering

Center for Advanced Studies in Energy (CASE)

Submitted by

Saad Salman

Advisor
Dr. Amir Naveed
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (UET),
PESHAWAR PAKISTAN
MSC. MINI PROJECT PROPOSAL

Proposal Title Manufacturing of Inorganic Membranes as Separator and Reactor

Department Center for Advanced Studies in Energy
Specialization Renewable Energy Engineering (REE)
Student’s Name Saad Salman
S/O Ali Inayat-u-llah Khan
Contact # +923409290174
Email Address sidd57827@gnail.com
Registration # 13ELE 0108
Registration Date 07/03/2018
Advisor Dr. Amir Naveed

Courses Studied
S. No. Course No. Course Name

1. CAS-REE 515 Applied Photovoltaics Engineering

2. CAS-REE 504 Power Electronics & Machines
3. CAS-REE 502 National/Provincial Energy Policies Supply/Demand
Planning
4. CAS-REE 503 Management of Technology & Innovation
5. CAS-REE 518 Electrical and Optical Properties of Materials
6. CAS-EP 509 Research Methodology
7. CAS-REE 515 Applied Photovoltaics Engineering
8. CAS-REE 527 Energy Quality Management & Standards
9. CAS-REE 5209 Solar Thermal Energy
Table of Contents
1. CONTEXT...........................................................................................................................4
2. THE PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT..........................................................................................4
3. THE OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT......................................................................................5
4. BENEFITS...........................................................................................................................5
4. METHODOLOGY................................................................................................................5
6. MONTH WISE PLAN OF WORK...........................................................................................6

1. Context
Today, it is well known that our society must face the challenge of modifying traditional industrial growth to
sustainable growth if we want to develop for generations. In many strategic sectors, such as water, energy,
food, health, etc., the necessary transformations will take place in accordance with the principles of process
intensification. They are based on innovative equipment, design and process development methods that are
expected to bring about substantial improvements in chemical and any other manufacturing and processing
aspects such as reduction of production costs, equipment size, energy consumption, waste generation and
improvement of remote control, information flows, and process flexibility.

2. The purpose of the project

In this work, an inorganic membrane will be produced for industrial use. A lab-scale inorganic membrane has
already been fabricated at UET Peshawar's Department of Chemical Engineering. There is not a single
membrane industrial manufacturing facility in Pakistan while its application is increasing day by day in every
industry. The availability of industrial scale membrane production in Pakistan will not only reduce foreign
exchange for membrane import but also serve to utilize locally available raw material resources as this project
will produce inorganic membrane for which there is enough basic raw material, available in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province as mineral materials like silica, alumina and zirconia etc.

3. The objectives of the project

I. Commercial scale production of inorganic membranes in Pakistan.

II. Utilization of locally available raw materials for membrane

production in Pakistan

III. The use of membrane reactors will bring substantial improvements in

chemical and any other aspects of production and processing, such as
reduction of production costs, plant size, energy consumption, waste
production.

Benefits
a. To nation
i. Membrane manufacturing efforts in the country will create employment in rural
communities and also provide an essential commodity that is closely related to trade
and commerce.
ii. Local production of membrane will flourish the technical expertise of local human
resource.

b. To Industry
i. Efficient industrial processes with high quality production and low cost
ii. Easy compliance of environmental regulation standards.
iii. Easy scale up of the industrial production according to the demands
c. To Government
 i. Local production of membrane will reduce the reliance on import which will save the
foreign exchange.
ii. Decrease in unemployment.

4. Methodology

Steam methane reforming is the most common industrial process used for almost 50% of the world's hydrogen
production. Usually this reaction is carried out in fixed bed reactors and several stages are required to separate
the hydrogen with the required purity. Membrane reactors represent a valid alternative to fixed-bed reactors by
combining the reforming reaction for hydrogen production and its separation in only one step. The production of
hydrogen through conventional reactors and membrane reactors is shown in Figure 1.
As is well known, process sustainability is not only related to improving process yield, energy consumption, etc.
Reduction of reaction-separation-purification stages, which means a smaller plant footprint, less auxiliary
equipment required a reduction in energy load.

Figure 1: (A) Traditional plant for H2 production from natural gas, (B) Integrated membrane plant for hydrogen
production from natural gas.
At laboratory scale, inorganic microfiltration membrane was synthesized by geopolymerization technique using
kaolinite material available in Azakhel Matani, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan [Figure 2; illustrate an
experimental procedure for the development of an inorganic microfiltration membrane using the
geopolymerization technique.

Figure 2:
Process schematic
for lab scale
synthesis of
inorganic ceramic
membrane.

For commercial use, the laboratory work on membrane synthesis will be expanded to include an inorganic
ceramic plate membrane as a separator and reactor. Inorganic ceramic plate membranes will be synthesized by
an extrusion mechanism as shown in Figure 3. Self-supporting asymmetric and multilayer composite
membranes will be fabricated for separation purposes and also for reactions as a membrane reactor. In the next
phase of the project, a catalytic membrane reactor will be built for the production of hydrogen and other
catalytically supported chemical reactions. The manufactured membranes will be placed in membrane modules
and tested for various applications. The overall synthesis process begins with the extrusion of the tubular
membrane carrier, followed by sintering and a hydrothermal method for high compressive-strength.

Figure 3: Schematic of the production of a tubular membrane carrier using an extrusion mechanism.
Using geopolymerization expertise, sintered loose membranes will also be produced using waste ash of various
nature. This will not only reduce production costs by avoiding the high temperature sintering process, but also
make useful use of waste ash.
The produced membranes will be used not only as a separator, but also as a membrane reactor. Membrane
reactors combine membrane functions such as separation, reactant distribution, and catalyst support with
chemical reactions in a single unit. Advantages of this approach include improved conversion, increased yield
and selectivity, as well as a more compact and cost-effective design of the reactor system. Membrane reactors
are therefore an effective way to intensify chemical processes.
Not a single ceramic membrane manufacturing plant is available in Pakistan, while the application of
membranes in various areas is increasing day by day. All membranes are imported, which are very expansive.
As raw materials for ceramic membranes are available in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, any ceramic membrane
manufacturing plant will not only reduce foreign exchange but also reduce import time and improve utilization of
locally available raw materials.

5. Month wise plan of work

Table 1 Monthly work plan
Activity 2022
March April May
Step-1 Research

Step-2 Data collection

Step-3 Discussions Organizing

Step-4 Contents Proposal writing

Submission Mid of July 2022

(Signature of the Student) (Signature of the Advisor)

(Signature of the Chairman) (Director Postgraduate

Studies)