The permeances of two palladium (Pd) membranes in pure H-2, binary and ternary gas mixtures are investigated experimentally. With 10% of gas impurities (N-2, CO2, or CO) in H-2, the profiles of dimensionless permeance suggest that H-2 permeation rate is lessened by approximately 50% to 90%, and the permeance reduced by the gas impurities is ranked as CO> CO2> N-2. By introducing a parameter of permeance resistance, which is the reciprocal of permeance, the permeance resistance in a ternary gas mixture can be predicted from the summation of individual permeance resistances in binary gas mixtures, revealing no synergistic effect exhibited from the interaction of contaminants. At least 75% and up to 100% of H2 in the gas mixtures can be recovered in the membrane system, and the maximum H-2 recovery develops at the H-2 partial pressure difference of 2 or 3 atm. In the Arrhenius-type equation describing the relationship between the permeance and temperature, the activation energy is between approximately 2 and 18 kJ mole(-1). In general, the permeances of the membranes in gas mixtures, especially in ternary gas mixtures, are more sensitive to temperature when compared with those in pure H-2, stemming from lower activation energy exhibited. Copyright (C) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.