• Korean Membrane Journal
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.68-74
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• 2003

Methane steam reforming (MSR) reaction for hydrogen production was studied in a membrane reactor (MR) using two tubular membranes, one Pd-based and one of porous alumina. A higher methane conversion than the thermodynamic equilibrium for a traditional reactor (TR) was achieved using MRs. The experimental temperature range was 350-500$^{\circ}C$; no sweep-gas was employed during reaction tests to avoid its back-permeation through the membrane and the steam/methane molar feed ratio (m) varied in the range 3.5-5.9. The best results (the difference between the MR conversion and the thermodynamic equilibrium was of about 7%) were achieved with the alumina membrane, working with the highest steam/methane ratio and at 450$^{\circ}C$. Silica membranes prepared at KRICT laboratories were characterized with permeation tests on single gases (N$_2$, H$_2$ and CH$_4$). These membranes are suited for H$_2$ separation at high temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.95-101
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• 2007

The synthesis of NaA zeolite membrane on a porous alumina support from clear solution by using hydrothermal reaction was investigated. Effects of reaction temperature, reaction time and seeding for transformation of zeolite A membrane and powder which are produced in the reactor were monitored through X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The transformation process of producing Zeolite A membrane starts from the formation of the compact and continuous membrane on the surface of porous support from clear solution. The large Zeolite A poly-crystal was then farmed through the dissolution process. Finally, the process was advanced from sodalite to amorphous. In case of powder, sodalite is formed in the early stage of reaction because of surrounding space difference between membrane and powder crystal. Discrete surrounding space of powder crystal makes easy to transform to sodalite. From Zeolite A to amorphous through transformed product was rapidly advanced at high temperature while the membrane with somewhat low coverage was obtained at low temperature. A compact and continuous zeolite A membrane was synthesized at $120^{\circ}C$ in 12-hour period.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.189-198
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• 1993

A new pressurized sol-gel coating technique forming membrane layers inside pores of the porous support by the simple operation has been developed. Crack-free and reproducible nanoparticulate silica membranes supported on the porous $\alpha$-alumina tube are synthesized by pressurized coating at 600kPa for 2hr. The pore radius and N2 gas permiability at the room temperature of silica membrane layers are 8$\AA$ and 7.0$\times$10-7mol/$m^2$.s.Pa, respectively. The mechanism of N2 gas transfer through synthesized membrane layers is the perfect Knudeen flow, and the thermal stability of the silica composite membranes is excellent upto 40$0^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.35-41
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• 2002

Dense oxygen ionic conducting materials can be used for oxygen separation membranes at high temperatures. However, they show relatively low permeation flux because of their large resistances. To reduce resistances and improve the oxygen permeation flux, thin dense yttria-stabilized-zirconia (YSZ)/Pd composite dual-phase membranes were fabricated by a new approach that combines the reservoir method and chemical vapor deposition (CVD). A thin porous YSZ layer was coated on a porous alumina support by dip-coating the YSZ suspension. A continuous Pd phase was formed inside pores of the YSZ layer by the reservoir method. The residual pores of the YSZ/Pd layer were plugged with yttria/zirconia by CVD to ensure the gas tightness of the membranes. The oxygen permeation fluxes through these composite membrane were 2.0$\times$10$^{-8}$ mol/cm$^2$.s and 4.8$\times$10$^{-8}$ mol/cm$^2$.s at 105$0^{\circ}C$ when air and oxygen were used as the permeate gases, respectively. These oxygen permeation values are about 1 order of magnitude higher than those of pure YSZ membranes prepared under similar conditions.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2004.07c
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• pp.1573-1575
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• 2004

An alumina membrane with nano-sized pores was fabricated by anodic oxidation. The shape and structure of the pore on alumina membrane were changed according to the roughness of aluminum surface. The shape and structure of the nano-sized pre were investigated according to purity of aluminum substrate for the anodization process. The aluminum substrates with 99.5% and 99.999% purities were used. The aluminum substrate(99.5%) was anodized after the processes of pressing, mechanical polishing, chemical polishing, and electrochemical polishing. The nano-sized pores with the pore size of 50 - 100nm, the cell size of 20-50nm and the thickness of $10{\mu}m{\sim}45{\mu}m$ were obtained. Even though the electrochemical polishing was used for the aluminum substrate (99.999%), the same characteristics as the aluminum substrate (99.5%) was obtained. The alumina membrane prepared by anodization for 5 min using fixed voltage method shows the pore with irregular shape. The pore shape was changed to regular shape after pore widening process.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.07a
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• pp.21-24
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• 2003

Methane steam reforming (MSR) was studied in a membrane reactor (MR) with a Pd-based and a porous alumina membranes. MRs showed methane conversion higher than that foresaw by the thermodynamic equilibrium for a traditional reactor (TR). Silica membranes prepared at KRICT were characterized with permeation tests on single gases ($N_2$, $H_2$ and $CH_4$). These silica membranes can be also used for high temperature applications such as $H_2$ separation $CO_2$ hydrogenation for methanol production is another reaction where $H_2O$ selective removal can be performed with these silica membranes.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.8 no.3 s.24
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• pp.43-51
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• 2004

In this study, gas permeation and separation characteristics of $CO_2$ and $N_2$ on nano-porous TPABr(Tetrapropylammoniumbromide) templating silica/alumina composite membrane were studied by using GMS (Generalized Maxwell Stefan) model. Since the transport mechanisms of meso-porous alumina support are Knudsen diffusion and viscous diffusion(or poiseulle flow), they can be identified by DGM (dusty gas model). The transport mechanism of TPABr templating silica layer, which would contribute mainly to the separation of $N_2/CO_2$ mixture, showed surface diffusion rather than pore diffusion. Therefore, the oermeationjseparation mechanisms in multi-component suface diffusion were successfully analyzed by the GMS model. In the separation of $N_2/CO_2$ mixture using the composite membrane, $CO_2$, the strongadsorbate, was permeated through the membrane more than Na due to the pore-blocking phenomena of $CO_2$ by adsorption isotherm and solace diffusion.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.248-256
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• 2012

A Pd-based hydrogen membranes for hydrogen purification and separation need high hydrogen perm-selectivity. The surface roughness of the support is important to coat the pinholes free and thin-film membrane over it. Also, The pinholes drastically decreased the hydrogen perm-selectivity of the Pd-based composite membrane. In order to remove the pinholes, we introduced various surface pre-treatment such as alumina powder packing, nickel electro-plating and micro-polishing pre-treatment. Especially, the micro-polishing pretreatment was very effective in roughness leveling off the surface of the porous nickel support, and it almost completely plugged the pores. Fine Ni particles filled surface pinholes with could form open structure at the interface of Pd alloy coating and Ni support by their diffusion to the membrane and resintering. In this study, a $4{\mu}m$ surface pore-free Pd-Cu-Ni ternary alloy membrane on a porous nickel substrate was successfully prepared by micro-polishing, high temperature sputtering and Cu-reflow process. And $H_2$ permeation and $N_2$ leak tests showed that the Pd-Cu-Ni ternary alloy hydrogen membrane achieved both high permeability of $13.2ml{\cdot}cm^{-2}{\cdot}min^{-1}{\cdot}atm^{-1}$ permation flux and infinite selectivity.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.312-319
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• 2010

Carbon membrane materials have received considerable attention for the gas separation including hydrocarbon mixture of ingredients of the volatile organic compounds(VOCs) because they possess their higher selectivity, permeability, and thermal stability than the polymeric membranes. The use of activated carbon membranes makes it possible to separate continuously the VOCs mixture by the selective adsorption-diffusion mechanism which the condensable components are preferentially adsorbed in to the micropores of the membrane. The activated carbon hollow fiber membranes with uniform adsorptive micropores on the wall of open pores and the surface of the membranes have been fabricated by the carbonization of a thin film of phenolic resin deposited on porous alumina hollow fiber membrane. Oxidation, carbonization, and activation processing variables were controlled under different conditions in order to improve the separation characteristics of the activated carbon membrane. Properties of activated carbon hollow fiber membranes and the characterization of a gas permeation by pyrolysis conditions were studied. As the result, the activated carbon hollow fiber membranes with good separation capabilities by the molecular size mechanism as well as selective adsorption on the pores surface followed by surface diffusion effective in the recovery hydrocarbons have been obtained. Therefore, these activated carbon membranes prepared in this study are shown as promising candidate membrane for separation of VOCs.

• Korean Membrane Journal
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.10-15
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• 2004

We developed a water-selective ceramic composite membrane for use as a dehydration membrane reactor for dimethylether (DME) synthesis from methanol. The membranes were modified on the porous stainless steel support by the sol-gel method accompanied by a suction process. The improved membrane modification process was effective in increasing the vapour permselectivity by removal of defects and pinholes. The optimized alumina/silica composite membrane exhibited a water permeance of 1.14${\times}$10$^{-7}$ mol/$m^2$.sec.Pa and a water/methanol selectivity of 8.4 at permeation temperature of 25$0^{\circ}C$. The catalytic reaction for DME synthesis from methanol using the membrane was performed at 23$0^{\circ}C$, and the reaction conversion was compared with that of the conventional fixed-bed reactor. The reaction conversion of the membrane reactor was much higher than that of the conventional fixed-bed reactor. The reaction conversion of the membrane reactor and the conventional fixed-bed reactor was 82.5 and 68.0%, respectively. This improvement of reaction efficiency can last if the water vapour produced in the reaction zone is removed continuously.