Propylene hydrogenation in a continuous polymeric catalytic membrane reactor

Abstract

A continuous polymeric catalytic membrane reactor (pCMR), using a poly-(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) composite membrane that contained palladium nanoclusters, was studied and modeled for the propylene hydrogenation. The PDMS catalytic membrane has an average thickness of 4.4 ím, and was loaded with 5 wt % of nanosized palladium clusters 9 nm in diameter. The reaction was performed at 308 K, and several feed compositions and flow rates were tested. The pCMR model proposed represents the experimental data (i.e., the flow rates and mixture compositions in the permeate and retentate chambers, and, therefore, the overall advancement) fairly well. In the hydrogenation rate equation, the propylene adsorption parameter and the kinetic constant were obtained by fitting the model to the experimental data. On the other hand, the hydrogen kinetic parameter and the mass-transport parameters were obtained from independent experiments.