Inorganic membranes high-temperature catalytic membrane reactors

As will be introduced in the next chapter, a new class of reactors called membrane reactors combines two unit operations (membrane separation and catalytic reaction) into one compact operation. Many of the membrane reactors of potential interest use inorganic membranes and are operated in gas/vapor phases at high temperatures involving gas separation. Thus membrane separation of gases is often a critical part of a membrane reactor and the aforementioned material and engineering considerations apply. Therefore, discussions on these and other additional considerations will be treated in detail later in Chapters 9 through 11. 

Many catalytic processes of industrial importance, however, involve the combination of high temperature and chemically harsh environments, a factor that strongly favors inorganic membranes. So with the introduction of commercially available glass, ceramic and metal membranes, there has been a dramatic surge of interest in the field of membrane reactor or membrane catalysis. 

Based on the above considerations, the types of reactions that are amenable to inorganic membrane reactors in the first wave of industrial implementation will probably be as follows (1) The reactions are heterogeneous catalytic reactions, particularly dehydrogenation processes (2) The reaction temperature exceeds approximately 200°C (3) When the reactions call for high-purity reactant(s) or produces) and the volume demand is relatively small, dense membrane reactors (e.g., Pd-based) can be used. On the other hand, if high productivity is critical for the process involved, porous membrane reactors are necessary to make the process economically viable. 

The nature of many high-temperature hydrocarbon reactions which potentially can benefit from inorganic membrane reactors (particularly catalytic membrane reactors) is such that the catalysts or the catalytic membranes are subject to poisoning over time. Deactivation and regeneration of many catalysts in the form of pellets are well known, but the same issues related to either catalyst-impregnated membranes or inherently catalytic membranes are new to industrial practitioners. They are addressed in this section. 

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