Hydrogen Production and Utilization in a Membrane Reactor

Summary

Membrane reactors enable hydrogenation in ambient conditions without direct H₂ input. We can track the hydrogen production and utilization in these systems using atmospheric mass spectrometry (atm-MS) and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS).

Abstract

Industrial hydrogenation consumes ~11 Mt of fossil-derived H₂ gas yearly. Our group invented a membrane reactor to bypass the need to use H₂ gas for hydrogenation chemistry. The membrane reactor sources hydrogen from water and drives reactions using renewable electricity. In this reactor, a thin piece of Pd separates an electrochemical hydrogen production compartment from a chemical hydrogenation compartment. The Pd in the membrane reactor acts as (i) a hydrogen-selective membrane, (ii) a cathode, and (iii) a catalyst for hydrogenation. Herein, we report the use of atmospheric mass spectrometry (atm-MS) and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to demonstrate that an applied electrochemical bias across a Pd membrane enables efficient hydrogenation without direct H₂ input in a membrane reactor. With atm-MS, we measured a hydrogen permeation of 73%, which enabled the hydrogenation of propiophenone to propylbenzene with 100% selectivity, as measured by GC-MS. In contrast to conventional electrochemical hydrogenation, which is limited to low concentrations of starting material dissolved in a protic electrolyte, the physical separation of hydrogen production from utilization in the membrane reactor enables hydrogenation in any solvent or at any concentration. The use of high concentrations and a wide range of solvents is particularly important for reactor scalability and future commercialization.

Introduction

Thermochemical hydrogenation reactions are used in ~20% of all chemical synthesis¹. These reactions require large quantities of H₂ gas, which are usually derived from fossil fuels, temperatures between 150 °C and 600 °C, and pressures up to 200 atm². Electrochemical hydrogenation is an appealing way to bypass these requirements and to drive hydrogenation reactions using water and renewable electricity³. For conventional electrochemical hydrogenation, an unsaturated feedstock is dissolved in a protic electrolyte in an electrochemical cell. When a potential is applied to the cel....

Protocol

1. Pd rolling

1. Clean the Pd wafer bar with a mixture of hexanes using a cotton cloth.
   CAUTION: Hexane is flammable, a health hazard, an irritant, and environmentally damaging. Work under proper ventilation (i.e., a snorkel or a fume hood).
2. Roll the Pd wafer using a manual roller until reaching a thickness of ≤150 µm, as determined by a digital micrometer.
3. Roll the Pd using an automatic roller to a thickness of 25 µm, as determined by a digital micrometer. Then, cut the resulting Pd into the desired dimensions (e.g., 3.5 cm x 3.5 cm).

2. Pd annealing....

Results

Atm-MS is used to measure the ionic current of the hydrogen that is produced in the membrane reactor. We can use these measurements to quantify how much hydrogen permeates through the Pd membrane during electrolysis. First, the hydrogen evolving from the hydrogenation compartment is measured (Figure 3, left of the dotted lines). When the signal reaches a steady state, the channel is switched to the electrochemical compartment. The H₂ gas evolving from the electrochemical compartme.......

Discussion

The Pd membrane enables hydrogen permeation and chemical hydrogenation. The preparation of this membrane is, therefore, important to the efficacy of the membrane reactor. The Pd membrane size, crystallography, and surface are tuned to improve the experimental results. Although Pd metal can evolve hydrogen at any thickness, the Pd membranes are rolled to 25 µm. This standardization of membrane thickness ensures that the time it takes for hydrogen to permeate through the membrane is constant for all the experiments. M.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Ag/AgCl Reference Electrode	BASi research products	MW-2021	Reference electrode
Analytical Balance	Cole-Parmer	RK-11219-03	Instrument
Atmospheric Mass Spectrometer	ESS CatalySys	NA	Instrument
Bench Power Supply	Newark	1550	Instrument
Conductive Copper Foil Electrical Tape	McMaster Carr	76555A711	Electrochemical cell assembly
Dichloromethane	Sigma Aldrich	270997	Reagent
Electric Rolling Press with Dual Micrometer	MTI Corporation	MR100A	Equipment
Electrochemical glass H-cell	University of British Columbia glass blowing	NA	Electrochemical cell assembly
ESS catalysis QUADSTAR	ESS CatalySys	NA	Software
Ethanol	Sigma Aldrich	493511	Reagent
Flat Rolling Mill	Pepetolls	18700A	Equipment
Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometer	Agilent	NA	Instrument
GC-MS vial	Agilent	5067-0205	Vial for GC-MS
Hexanes	Sigma Aldrich	1.0706	Reagent
Hydrochloric Acid	Sigma Aldrich	258148	Reagent
Hydrogen peroxide solution (30% v/v)	Sigma Aldrich	H1009	Reagent
Isopropyl Alcohol	Sigma Aldrich	W292907	Reagent
Masshunter Aquisition Software	Agilent	G1617FA	Software
Micropipette (100 µL - 1000 µL)	Gilson	F123602	instrument
Micropipette (20 µL - 200 µL)	Gilson	F123601	Instrument
Mitutoyo Digital Micrometer	Uline	H-2780	Instrument
Muffle Furnace	MTI Corporation	KSL-1100X	Equipment
Nitric acid	Sigma Aldrich	438073	Reagent
Nitrogen gas	Sigma Aldrich	608661	Reagent
Palladium (II) Chloride	Sigma Aldrich	520659	Reagent
Pd wafer bar, 1 oz, 99.95%	Silver Gold Bull.	NA	Reagent
Platinum Auxiliary Electrode	BASi research products	MW-1032	Anode
Potentiostat	Metrohm	PGSTAT302N	Instrument
Propiophenone	Sigma Aldrich	P51605	Reagent
Proton Exchange Membrane, Nafion 212	Fuel cell store	NA	Electrochemical cell assembly
Sulfuric acid	Sigma Aldrich	258105	Reagent