Novel Membrane Reactors for Catalytic Reactions to Maximize Production and Minimize Pollution (MPMP) in Petroleum and Petro-complex Compounds

Editorial

One of the main techniques for pollution control and achieving green technology is to achieve MPMP. Almost all catalytic reactions in the Petroleum refining and Petrochemical industry are reversible and therefore their conversion is limited by the thermodynamic equilibrium. This conservative limitation can be broken by using selective membranes to remove one of the products. In this couple of pages editorial this revolutionary concept leading to MPMP is used for the dehydrogenation reaction where the selective membranes are used for the perm- selective removal of hydrogen [1, 2, 3]. These membranes have 100% selectivity for the removal of hydrogen. Most efficient configuration is when in the other side of the membrane is a hydrogenation reaction and the flows in the two sides of the membrane are counter-current. Such MPMP for catalytic reactors is essential part of Sustainable Development Engineering (SDE) which is an important subsystem of Sustainable Development (SD). The removal of one, or more, of the products relaxes this limitation and increases the conversion of the reaction, this relaxation increases as the removal of the product(s) Dehydrogenation

Hydrogenation of

of Ethylbenzene

Nitrobenzene

H2 Permeation

Heat Transfer

Cross-section in the reactor showing the membrane tubes Figure 1: Schematic diagram showing integrated reactor configuration.

10 Molar Flowrate of Hydrogen (moles/s)

No membranes (Dehydrohenation of Ethylbenzene) Membrane Cocurrent Configuration (Dehydrogenation Side) Membrane Countercurrent Configuration (Dehydrogenation Side) Membrane Cocurrent Configuration (Hydrogenation Side) Membrane Countercurrent Configuration (Hydrogenation Side) Figure 2: Hydrogen profiles for different configurations/ sides.