(608f) Improving Dehydrogenation Conversion and Selectivity By Utilizing Thermally Stable Membranes
AIChE Annual Meeting
2017
2017 Annual Meeting
Separations Division
Membrane Reactors
Wednesday, November 1, 2017 - 4:55pm to 5:15pm
To study the impact of membrane utilization on the dehydrogenation process, blend polymer materials with high thermal stability, chemical resistance and transport properties has been selected as membrane materials. The permeabilities of dense films of Polybenzimidazole (PBI) and Matrimid® blends were evaluated from room temperature to 300 C. Permeabilities increased exponentially with temperature and the selectivities decreased. All blend materials were stable over the multi-day testing.
The potential impact of selective hydrogen removal via thermally-stable polymer blends was calculated from finite element modelling. The model incorporated the measured permeation properties, measured reaction equilibrium information, and catalyst performance (kinetics and coking). As the process can be operated at a range of temperatures, the influence of system temperature on conversion, permeation rate, and catalyst deactivation is analysed. The use of a single membrane unit inter-stage between two packed beds has the potential to increase reactant conversion by 35% compared to operation without inter-stage conversion.