Sharif Journal of Mechanical Engineering

Sharif Journal of Mechanical Engineering

Thermodynamic Modeling and Performance Assessment of a Clean Hydrogen Production Energy System Using a Palladium Separation Membrane Based on Gibbs Free Energy Minimization and Lagrange Undetermined Multipliers Method

Document Type : Article

Author
Parisa Mojaver
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kermanshah University of Technology, Kermanshah, Iran
10.24200/j40.2026.67527.1747
Abstract
In this study, an integrated system for producing clean hydrogen from eucalyptus biomass was designed and analyzed. The system consists of four main units: a gasification reactor, a steam-methane reforming reactor, a water-gas shift reactor, and a palladium membrane for hydrogen separation. The equations of the process were implemented and solved using Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software and the outcomes were validated against experimental data reported in the literature, showing good agreement. The findings indicate that gasification temperature plays a decisive role in determining the composition of the produced gas. Specifically, with increasing temperature, the hydrogen fraction at the gasification reactor outlet rose by 15.26% in the gasification reactor outlet and by 20.71% in the steam-methane reforming reactor, while it decreased by 2.12% in the water-gas shift reactor. Moreover, higher temperatures enhanced the hydrogen flux through the palladium membrane from 0.29 to 1.52 J/m2.s, highlighting the strong influence of operating conditions on system performance
Keywords
Gibbs free energy minimization
Lagrange undetermined multipliers
clean hydrogen
Water-gas shift reactor
Palladium separation membrane
Subjects
 
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