Membrane engineering in hydrogen production, separation and utilization at the ITM-CNR

In the near future, all the economic/political decisions, industrial strategies and scientific efforts about the hydrogen production, separation, and utilization will pass through the "Hydrogen Strategy in the Green-Deal", which will constitute the biggest challenge that the World is facing, but also the greatest opportunity for making reliable a sustainable World's perspective [1]. After the meeting of G20, in Japan on 2019, a general agreement has been noticed about the common interest to deplete the fossil fuels dependence and reduce the greenhouse gases emissions. Hence, the combination of renewable sources and alternative technologies seems to be the future perspective in several sectors, from energy and petrochemical industry to gas separation, environment and transportation [2]. Under the vision of the Hydrogen Economy, the membrane engineering represents today a valuable and emerging option to generate, separate and purify hydrogen, adopting the principles of the Process Intensification Strategy (Figure 1) [3]. The Institute on Membrane Technology dedicates a relevant part of its research activities to hydrogen, from the application of the membrane reactor technology to generate COx-free hydrogen to the separation and purification of syngas or hydrogen-rich streams via inorganic, polymeric and composite membranes. The aim of this work is to illustrate the past, present and future perspectives of membrane technology applied to the hydrogen area at CNR-ITM, showing the most relevant results achieved under the development of international and national projects, research collaborations and ongoing research activities.