| In this dissertation, a macroporous stainless steel membrane is used in a catalytic packed-bed reactor to conduct the industrially important reaction of methanol oxidative dehydrogenation. A steady-state membrane reactor model is developed based on experimentally determined reaction kinetics. It is demonstrated, both experimentally and by modeling, that a packed-bed membrane reactor may exhibit higher reactant conversion as compared with the conventional fixed-bed reactor. Regions of preferential reactor performance are calculated, and the resulting map compares favorably with experimental data. The configuration with membrane distributed oxygen feed provides higher optimal formaldehyde yield than the fixed-bed reactor.; A comparative study of membrane versus conventional reactor stability is performed. It is identified that the spatial non-uniformity of reaction conditions along the reactor causes instability in packed-bed operation, and that the membrane distributed feed effectively stabilizes the process.; Finally, the concept of membrane distributed feed may also be applied to multiphase catalytic reaction systems. It is demonstrated that use of a membrane to distribute hydrogen feed increases glucose to sorbitol hydrogenation rate in a trickle-bed reactor. |
