Applying membrane techniques to separate hydrogen from natural gas for hydrogen technologies

Today, the world's energy industry is grappling with several issues arising from restrictions on harmful greenhouse gas emissions, related to climate and environmental protection. Methods of storing energy in various types of carriers are becoming increasingly important, the most promising of which is hydrogen. Various methods of storing it are being considered, where an interesting option is to store it temporarily, under certain conditions, in existing natural gas networks. The challenge, however, is its subsequent recovery. Membrane technology is receiving special attention among recovery methods because of its potential efficiency in hydrogen separation, safety and ease of operation, low energy requirements and environmental friendliness. The paper presents a literature study of the issue, preliminary analyses of membrane gas separation and the advisability of the direction of the new research that has been undertaken. The possibility of applying membrane techniques to the process of separating hydrogen from natural gas in transmission and distribution networks for hydrogen storage technology is presented. Preliminary research is geared toward exploring the scope of applicability of this method of membrane separation, in which the primary goal is to determine the possibility of separating hydrogen from methane. In this paper, within the framework of the adopted simplified structure of the polymeric membrane module, the basic parameters of the process (share of hydrogen in the feed, membrane surface area) were determined, as well as the influence and dependence of transmembrane pressure (permeate) on the values of membrane selectivity, recovery rate and purity of the obtained hydrogen.