Patent ID: 8495882

Claim:
An apparatus using a hydrogen-selective membrane for carbon capture, comprising: a water-gas shift reactor configured to receive a syngas from a gasification unit; a first unit operation in flow communication with the water-gas shift reactor, the first unit operation including a first, high permeance membrane with H 2 /CO 2 selectivity in flow communication with the water-gas shift reactor, the first membrane providing a first, H 2 -rich permeate stream and a first, H 2 -poor, CO 2 -rich and CO-rich retentate stream; and a second unit operation in flow communication with the first operation unit for receiving the first, H 2 -poor, CO 2 -rich and CO-rich retentate stream from the first unit operation, the second unit operation recovering H 2 and CO from the first retentate stream to produce a CO 2 -rich product stream, wherein an entire content of the CO 2 -rich product stream produced by the second operation unit has a minimum pressure of at least about 10.0 bar, and wherein the second unit operation comprises a second, high permeance membrane with Knudsen selectivity for permeating H 2 , CO and CO 2 to provide a second permeate stream and a second retentate stream, and wherein the first, H 2 -rich permeate stream and the second permeate stream are combined to produce a H 2 and CO-rich fuel stream capable of being used by a combined cycle power generation unit to produce electricity.