Modeling and basic characteristics of novel integrated dehydrogenation-hydrogenation membrane catalytic reactors

Considering a catalytic hydrogenation reaction in the shell side instead of the inert sweep gas extends, one step forward, the idea of using catalytic reactors with hydrogen selective membranes for 'breaking' the thermodynamic barrier of dehydrogenation reactions towards novel configurations of integrated membrane catalytic reactors (IMCRS). An important member of the class of IMCRS is the integrated catalytic dehydrogenation-hydrogenation (ICDH) reactor, which offers a good number of advantages through its different possible configurations, e.g. co-current, counter-current. Rigorous mathematical models are excellent tools for the exploration of the basic characteristics of such novel configurations. The specific system considered in this paper is the simultaneous catalytic dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene and hydrogenation of benzene coupled through the hydrogen selective membranes. Rigorous models are developed and used to explore the basic characteristics of a number of configurations for a number of catalysts and membranes. The results show that considerable increase in styrene productivity can be achieved in addition to the extra product from the hydrogenation section. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.