Membrane Reactor—Overcoming Equilibrium with Simultaneous Separation

6 Membrane Reactor—Overcoming Equilibrium with Simultaneous Separation  

Reversible chemical reactions given enough time will come to equilibrium. In the batch reactor equilibrium is diagnosed when the conversion of the reactant no longer changes even when the reaction time, that is, the batch holding time, is increased. When the reactor is a flow 

Often the equilibrium position of a reversible process is such that the conversion to product is low at reasonable holding times (i.e., flow rates and reactor volumes). For example, the dehydrogenation of saturated alkanes and alkyl aromatics to produce alkenes and aryl-alkenes and hydrogen is a very important case in point  

This is economically disadvantageous because it means either that rates of production will be low or that the investment in the reactor will be very high because it needs to be so large. There is a clever way aroimd this that always has been employed on a small scale and that is now gaining currency for selected larger-scale processes. 

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