The innovative process they have proposed could yield new long-life materials in the coming years that will be able to efficiently separate hydrogen, often referred to as the fuel of the future.
“In membrane separation, gas mixtures are separated by means of a suitable porous membrane which has different permeabilities relative to the individual gaseous components. In our research, we pay particular attention to the different types of membranes, especially in terms of gas permeability and selectivity of the membrane materials. These are the two most important criteria when assessing membrane performance,” explained Ján Vereš, researcher from the Energy Research Centre.
Together with colleagues in the laboratories, they develop and test membrane processes that have the potential to be applied by industry and meet all safety criteria. The practical applicability of the membrane is crucial for adapting membrane processes to a specific industrial application.
The use of hydrogen as a carbon-free fuel is becoming increasingly important in the context of the current energy crisis and the need to move away from fossil fuels. With this research, the Energy Research Centre is expanding its range of existing research topics into this very progressive area, which is also intertwined with other disciplines beyond the energy sector. Process gases are generated in various production or auxiliary processes, for example in metallurgy, petrochemistry or the chemical industry, and contain large amounts of energy.