Membrane Reactor Supported by MXene (Ti3C2T X ) for Hydrogen Production by Ammonia Decomposition

Hydrogen (H-2) production by ammonia (NH3)decomposition offers a solution to the energy problem. In this work,an MXene (titanium carbide, Ti3C2T (X) ) membrane was successfully synthesized by depositingit onto the anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) substrate using vacuum-assistedfiltration. Then, a membrane reactor supported by MXene was developedfor H-2 production by NH3 decomposition. TheMXene membrane reactor could achieve an H-2 permeance of2.85 x 10(-7) mol m(-2) s(-1) Pa-1 and an H-2/N-2 selectivity of 20 at 773.15 K. Next, a Ni-La/& gamma;-Al2O3 catalyst prepared by impregnation and sinteringwas added to catalyze the NH3 decomposition process. Theexperimental results showed that the reactor could achieve a 99% NH3 conversion at 773.15 K, i.e., 9% higher than that of thepacked catalytic reactor (without membrane). A mathematical modelof the membrane reactor was developed to explain the experimentalresults. The calculated activation energies (E (ad)) of the MXene membrane for H-2 and N-2 permeances were 64.95 and 69.53 kJ mol(-1), respectively.The activation energy (E (ar)) of NH3 decomposition was 147.8 kJ mol(-1). Boththe experimental and modeling results showed that the membrane reactorcould enhance NH3 conversion and promote the productionof high-purity H-2.