Thermal Effects in Membrane Reactors

This unit was proposed for the steam reforming of town gas, with removal of product hydrogen through Pd membrane tubes embedded in the annular catalyst ring. The hydrogen could be burned with a fuel to provide the required heat for the endothermic reforming reaction. 

A different point of view is that the challenge of managing heat effects provides an opportunity for membrane reactors. The applications described in this section illustrate this approach. 

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Thermal Effects in Membrane Reactors - The problem of how to supply or remove heat from membrane reactors is an important practical concern. In a shell-and-tube configuration, the catalyst can be put on the shell side, which can then be encased in yet another shell containing a heat-transfer fluid. It is likely that other geometries will, in fact, be used. For example, the burner unit of Ohta et al. is shown schematically in Figure 10. 

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