HY2SEPS was an EU-funded project directed at the reduction of CO2 emissions. The principal objective of the project was to develop a hybrid membrane-adsorptive H2/CO2 separation technique that would form an integral element of the pre-combustion process. Specific tasks included the derivation of simplified mathematical models for the membrane separation of H2/CO2 mixtures.

In the present study one of the developed models is discussed in detail, namely that with the countercurrent plug flow of the feed and the permeate. A number of simulations were carried out concerning the separation of binary mixtures that may appear following steam conversion of methane. The numerical results were then compared with the experimental data obtained by FORTH/ICEHT. The estimated fluxes of pure CO2, H2, CH4 and N2 are shown alongside those measured experimentally as a function of temperature and CO2 partial pressure in Figs 2 - 7. It is concluded that, in general, CO2 flux increases monotonically with both temperature and CO2 partial pressure. It is also found that the fluxes of hydrogen, methane and nitrogen reach a minimum at a temperature slightly above 323 K. Overall, a good agreement was obtained between the simulations and experiments.

The paper discusses the application possibilities of ceramic foam in a thermal combustion process of a lean methane-air mixture. The experiments were done in a ceramic foam bed. The foam (Vukopor ^® A) was made mainly of Al ₂O ₃. The foam samples were packed in a tubular reactor symmetrically placed in a laboratory furnace. It was assumed that the tested foam should have a surface close to the monolith surface area which was tested in a previous work (Pawlaczyk and Gosiewski, 2015). Pore density of the tested foam was 10 PPI. The tested air mixture contained 0.51 - 0.76 vol. % of methane. The results show that thermal methane oxidation in foam is possible in the acceptable range of temperatures. The combustion process in foam is characterized by similar ignition temperature to tests carried out in monolith, a more intense course, and better methane conversion at lower temperatures.

Results are presented concerning the separation of the mixtures of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and oxygen in membrane modules with modified polysulphone or polyimide as active layers. The feed gas was a mixture with composition corresponding to that of a stream leaving stage 1 of a hybrid adsorptivemembrane process for the removal of CO2 from dry flue gas. In gas streams containing 70 vol.% of CO2, O2 content was varied between 0 and 5 vol.%. It is found that the presence of oxygen in the feed gas lowers the purity of the product CO2 in all the modules studied, while the recovery depends on the module. In the PRISM module (Air Products) an increase in O2 feed concentration, for the maximum permeate purity, led to a rise in CO2 recovery, whereas for the UBE modules the recovery did not change.