Microreactors micromembranes

The benefits of the use of micromembranes for the selective removal of one or more products during reaction have been demonstrated for equdibrium-limited reactions [289]. For example, the performance of hydrophilic ZSM-5 and NaA membranes over multichannel microreactors prepared from electro-discharge micromachining of commercial porous stainless steel plates was studied by Yeung et al. in the Knoevenagel condensation [290,291] and andine oxidation to azoxybenzene [292]. For such kind of reactions, the zeolite micromembrane role consists of the selective removal of water, which indeed yields higher conversions, better product purity, and a reduction in catalyst deactivation in comparison to the traditional packed bed reactor. 

Abstract Process intensification (PI) is the future direction for the chemical and process industries and in this chapter, two key technologies to achieve this are discussed microreactors and so-caUed membrane microreactors (MMRs).There is great potential to enhance the overall efficiency of microreactors by integrating them with membrane technologies to make MMRs and there are tremendous opportunities for the application of MMRs in many fields. This chapter reviews microreactor design, fabrication and apphcations as well as materials for micromembranes (MM). The integration of MMs with microreactors and the applications of the resulting MMRs are then discussed. 

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