光触媒による水分解と膜分離を組み合わせた水素製造プロセス構築の現状と将来

抄録

The recent research circumstances of photocatalytic overall splitting of H₂O and the membrane separation of H₂ and O₂ for constructing the hydrogen production system by applying photocatalytic H₂O splitting are introduced. Here, the principle of photocatalytic H₂O splitting and photocatalysts for the reaction are explained on the historical aspect. Furthermore, the photocatalysts with high photocatalytic ability to the reaction, not only the photocatalysts and photocatalytic systems work under solar irradiation but also those show high efficiency are introduced. Incorporating gas separation membranes into the photocatalytic reactor leads to a safe and energy-efficient hydrogen production process. Since any research of application of gas separation membrane to this purpose has not been found in the literature, our research is introduced. The goal performance that the membrane should achieve to produce safe H2 and O₂ streams have been determined by a simple model of a membrane module. Permeability and selectivity of H₂ over O₂ for silica membranes, carbon membranes, and polyimide membranes have been examined in a temperature range from 35 to 100 °C. Some silica membranes have passed the goal at 100 °C for a wet mixture of H₂/O₂(2/1).