Patent ID: 8226750

Claim:
A hydrogen purification module, comprising; a) An at least one hydrogen permeable membrane having two sides; b) An inlet gas metallic member, effective to channel a hydrogen-containing inlet gas across a first side of said hydrogen permeable membrane, where the first side is normally pressurized in operation; c) A hydrogen collector metallic member effective to receive permeated hydrogen gas from the second side of said hydrogen permeable membrane, where the second side is normally at a lower gas pressure than the first side; d) A permeate metallic support member and an inlet gas metallic support member, joined to the inlet gas side and permeate side faces of hydrogen permeable membrane, respectively, to form an integral permeating structure of the three parts, where both permeate metallic support member and inlet gas metallic support member allow for the passage of gas through their structures; where said inlet gas metallic member and hydrogen collector metallic members are operative to mechanically support said integral permeating structure when the differential gas pressure across integral permeating structure is either positive or negative.