Hydrogen Purifiers Market Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024 Nov 2016 | Page 2

REPORT DESCRIPTION

A hydrogen purifier is a device that is used to purify hydrogen, especially if the hydrogen product is obtained from
hydrocarbon sources. Hydrogen is used in various industrial processes, especially in the refining industry. Hydrogen is also
a major component of off-gases generated in various refinery processes. Traditionally, off-gases were used as an energy
source by burning. However, due to reduced margins and stricter regulations, technologies for the recovery of hydrogen
are getting widespread attention. Hydrogen manufacturers are highly sensitive to the cost of hydrogen purification
systems because hydrogen basically is a cost to them. A steady growth of this market is expected, due to increased usage
of heavy oils in refining and higher demand for high-purity hydrogen as well as lower profit margins and stricter
environmental regulations.
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The most common types of hydrogen purifiers are palladium membrane hydrogen purifiers, dense thin-metal membrane
hydrogen purifiers, pressure swing adsorption, and catalytic recombination or deoxygenation purifiers. The pressure swing
adsorption technique is the most well-developed and established process for hydrogen purification. This technology is
based on physical binding of molecules of a gas to a solid adsorbent material such as activated carbon, silica gel, carbon
molecular sieves, and zeolites. It makes use of the fact that hydrogen has very low polarity and highly weak attractive
force with the adsorbent material. Dense thin-metal membrane hydrogen purifiers are relatively less expensive and
simple to use.
However, the level of hydrogen purity obtained is not acceptable for several high-tech applications. Catalytic
recombination or deoxygenation purifiers are used to remove oxygen impurities by the use of a dryer after oxygen reacts
with hydrogen to form water vapor. For niche applications such as those in the semiconductor industry, palladium
membrane hydrogen purifiers have no alternative. Pd is the only technology that provides absolute purification, which
means only H2 can diffuse across the Pd membrane. Most of H2 supplied in developing countries such as China and India
is of variable consistency. This leads to impurity spikes in the feed that other technologies which work by adsorbing some
proportion of impurities from the H2 stream struggle to contain. The cost of replacement of contaminated epiwafers
caused by these impurities as well as the downtime required for the tool clean-up is prohibitive to manufactures. Hence,
palladium membrane hydrogen purifiers is a viable technology used for high-end applications.

The use of hydrogen purification technologies is poised to experience robust growth in the U.S., China, Russia, Japan,
Canada, and India in refining and electronics industries. The hydrogen purifiers industry in Asia Pacific is expected to