Efficient absorption techniques for oxygen gas

Question

This question is somewhat vague, but I am interested in biogas treatment and a major component in biogas treatment is oxygen filtration. I know there are various methods for oxygen filtration such as using zinc or aluminum to react with oxygen forming a stable compound or using a catalyst like hydrogen.

I want to make a small oxygen filter that removes oxygen from relatively fast moving gas coming from a pipe. I feel the issue with using a metal is that it takes too long for filtration and catalysts like hydrogen are dangerous and can mess with the function of the biogas.

What techniques are used in removing oxygen from a constant gas flow? Is it possible to make a small oxygen filter for residential use?

Answer 1

In a standard catalyst bed for an inert atmosphere glovebox, pure metal isn't used to remove $\mathrm{O_{2}}$ from the atmosphere. Instead, a high surface area dispersion of copper oxide on alumina or other support material is used. This material is activated by passing $\mathrm{H_{2}}$ or $\mathrm{H_{2}}$/$\mathrm{N_{2}}$ over the catalyst bed at high temperature to reduce the $\mathrm{CuO}$ to Cu (and in turn reacts with oxygen during normal operation to reform CuO). These supported Cu catalyst materials are sometimes called "Q5" or "Cu-0226 S" in the literature. I do not know the max flow rate that these catalyst beds can handle, though. This technical report might be of interest to you:

Rosembergue Gonçalves; Junior, R.; Neto, P.; Roza Doubnik; Adamowski, M.; Montanari, D.; Machado, A.; Segreto, E.; Alegre, T. P.; Adriano, C.; Pagliuso, P.; Cruz, I.; Cardoso, D.; Reis, C.; Assaf, J.; Assaf, E. Technical Note CRYOFRABR#002/2021: Activated-Copper-Coated Alumina Granules Synthesis. OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) 2021. https://doi.org/10.2172/1827113.