INL has developed polymeric membrane-based chemical separations to enable the thermochemical production of hydrogen. Major activities included studies of sulfuric acid concentration membranes, hydriodic acid concentration membranes, SO2/O2 separation membranes, potential applications of a catalyst reactor system for the decomposition of HI, and evaluation of the chemical separation needs for alternate thermochemical cycles. Membranes for the concentration of sulfuric acid were studied using pervaporation. The goal of this task was to offer the sulfur-iodine (S-I) and the hybrid sulfur (HyS) cycles a method to concentrate the sulfuric acid containing effluent from the decomposer without boiling. In this work, sulfuric acid decomposer effluent needs to be concentrated from ~50 % acid to 80 %. This task continued FY 2006 efforts to characterize water selective membranes for use in sulfuric acid concentration. In FY 2007, experiments were conducted to provide specific information, including transmembrane fluxes, separation factors, and membrane durability, necessary for proper decision making on the potential inclusion of this process into the S-I or HyS Integrated Laboratory Scale demonstration.
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