Evaluation of porous catalytic membranes operated in pore-flow-through mode for hydrogenation of α-methylstyrene

摘要: A study of the catalytic membrane contactor operated in pore-flow-through (PFT) mode was carried out for hydrogenation α-methylstyrene (AMS) to cumene over palladium as a test reaction. By applying metalorganic chemical vapour deposition method, catalyst deposited nanoparticles on pore walls porous alumina capillaries. Experiments were performed with up six individual Pd-activated capillaries laboratory-scale reactor set-up and capillary bundles small pilot plant. The influence operating parameters performance such temperature (303–333 K), hydrogen pressure (5–10 bar), transmembrane flux (up 200 l·m−2·min−1), size (0.6–3.0 µm) concentration AMS n-heptane used solvent investigated. Moreover, PFT-system compared that conventional reactors (e.g. fixed bed, trickle bubble column, stirred tank) novel designs (catalytic diffuser mode, monolith reactor) based published data. It is shown PFT principle enables very high activity, comparable suspended powder tank and, at same time, an excellent space time yield. Copyright © 2009 Curtin University Technology John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.