Carbon-low, renewable hydrogen production from methanol steam reforming in membrane reactors – a review

The development of sustainable and new technologies based on renewable energy sources is mandatory due to the anthropogenic climate changes and the depletion of fossil fuels. Hydrogen is considered a clean alternative able to produce only water and energy when consumed in fuel cell. However, the main issue for large-scale hydrogen commercialization is its storage and transportation. One way to solve this problem is to use energy carriers, such as methanol, which is liquid at ambient conditions, low reforming temperature, holds relatively highly H/C ratio and can be produced by biomass. So, hydrogen can be later produced on-demand by methanol steam reforming reaction. In order to produce carbon-low hydrogen alternative technologies are considered. In particular, membrane reactors are raising attention. The use of membrane reactor enables to increase the process selectivity, lower the temperature of the reaction while avoiding the formation of coke, and obtain a high pure hydrogen stream. This review provides an overview of the recent progress to produce hydrogen from methanol reforming in convectional and membrane reactors.