Optimization of membrane area to catalyst mass in a microstructured membrane reactor for dehydrogenation of methylcyclohexane

Abstract

For the intensification of a dehydrogenation reaction, a membrane reactor concept with palladium foils was tested. A planar membrane module with microstructures packed with catalyst was applied experimentally and different membrane area and catalyst bed height were combined. The modules were analyzed with non-reactive gas mixtures and the film effectiveness concept was applied to rule out severe concentration gradients towards the membrane surface. Further a simulation of the reactor was established to study the modules. Therefore, experiments of a pervious study as well as additional experiments were compared with the simulation results and a new optimized module was derived. A high hydrogen recovery of slightly above 80% could be achieved as well as pressures up to 30bar and 3bar on feed and permeate side, respectively, could be tested with up to 90% conversion of methylcyclohexane in the optimized system.