Abstract
The development of a chemical industry characterized by resource efficiency, in particular with reference to energy use, is becoming a major issue and driver for the achievement of a sustainable chemical production. From an industrial point of view, several application areas, where energy saving and CO2 emissions still represent a major concern, can take benefit from the application of membrane reactors. On this basis, different markets for membrane reactors are analyzed in this paper, and their technical feasibility is verified by proper experimentation at pilot level relevant to the following processes: (i) pure hydrogen production; (ii) synthetic fuels production; (iii) chemicals production. The main outcomes of operations in the selected research lines are reported and discussed, together with the key obstacles to overcome.
Highlights
The results reported in the paper, being far from presenting a detailed characterization of the adopted membrane in terms of flux and permeance, aim to give a sketch of the influence of membrane integration on the overall process performance, evidencing that the experimentation at pilot level is necessary to fully understand that the operation of an industrial catalytic membrane reactor is closely linked to the selection of active and selective membranes and catalysts and to the individuation of reliable procedures for a correct operation and maintenance
A selective membrane can be integrated with the reaction environment in two different configurations, with different benefits and drawbacks: (i) the selective membrane is in direct contact with the reaction environment/catalyst, and the reaction product is continuously removed simultaneously to its production (Integrated Membrane Reactor (IMR) or closed architecture); (ii) the selective membrane is not in direct contact with the reaction environment/catalyst but installed outside the reactor and followed downstream by another reaction unit, where the overcoming of chemical equilibrium is observed (Staged Membrane Reactor (SMR), or Reactor and Membrane Module (RMM), or open architecture) [19,20]
Solution consisting of the Catalytic partial oxidation (CPO) reactor integrated with the reformer and the membrane enables for Looking at the economics of the novel process for syngas production, it can be observed that the a reduction in oxygen consumption, since a portion of feed conversion is achieved in the upstream solution consisting of the CPO reactor integrated with the reformer and the membrane enables for a reformer stage
Summary
Membrane reactors are currently increasingly recognized as an effective way to replace conventional separation, process, and conversion technologies for a wide range of applications. PDH (C3 H8 = C3 H6 + H2 ) is a highly endothermic reaction, favored at high temperatures of operation In these conditions, other side reactions usually can be observed, responsible for the production of lighter hydrocarbons or coke deposited on the catalyst, thereby forcing to carry out a periodic catalyst regeneration in order to recover its activity after deactivation. Pd-based membranes appear as the most promising solution for the integration with the PDH reaction, owing to their significant selectivity/flux ratio and to the conventional operating temperature (400–500 ◦ C) that is aligned with the PDH reaction operating conditions [18] In this paper, it is reported the experience gained by KT in the design and testing of pilot facilities where membranes for hydrogen separation play a key role for the overall process performance. The results reported in the paper, being far from presenting a detailed characterization of the adopted membrane in terms of flux and permeance, aim to give a sketch of the influence of membrane integration on the overall process performance, evidencing that the experimentation at pilot level is necessary to fully understand that the operation of an industrial catalytic membrane reactor is closely linked to the selection of active and selective membranes and catalysts and to the individuation of reliable procedures for a correct operation and maintenance
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