Hydrogen-palladium sorption system

The investigation here reported was carried out in an attempt to show that such surface states did exist and that sorption and magnetic susceptibility studies of hydrogen-palladium systems might answer some of the questions raised by previous investigators. 

In recent years, new concepts to produce hydrogen by methane SR have been proposed to improve the performance in terms of capital costs reducing with respect to the conventional process. In particular, different forms of in situ hydrogen separation, coupled to reaction system, have been studied to improve reactant conversion and/or product selectivity by shifting of thermodynamic positions of reversible reactions towards a more favourable equilibrium of the overall reaction under conventional conditions, even at lower temperatures. Several membrane reactors have been investigated for methane SR in particular based on thin palladium membranes [14]. More recently, the sorption-enhanced steam methane reforming (Se-SMR) has been proposed as innovative method able to separate CO2 in situ by addition of selective sorbents and simultaneously enhance the reforming reaction [15]. 

In the paper presented here, we will focus our interest on irreversible bimolecular consecutive reactions, where the substrate and interaediate product are in competition for the same reactant. As an example the selective hydrogenation of o-alkylphenol on a palladium catalyst in a stirred tank slurry reactor was investigated. To properly design such a system, the chemical reaction steps and prior physical steps, such as diffusion and sorption, must be considered. The rigorous description of a multiphase... 

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