(707b) Process Intensification of Propane Dehydrogenation Using Microporous Silica Membranes

Propylene is an important intermediate chemical for production of petrochemicals such as polypropylene and acrylonitrile. Propylene and other light olefins are mainly produced by light hydrocarbon fractions such as steam cracking and fluid catalytic cracking. The equilibrium limit exists in traditional packed bed reactors (PBR), thus packed bed membrane reactors (PBMR) became an important subject to explore because they can combine chemical reaction and separation in one step. Due to selective removal of one of the products (H₂), PBMR helps in shifting the equilibrium towards the forward reaction, and can overcome the equilibrium limitations in PBR. In this work, we developed microporous silica membranes modified with atomic layer deposition (ALD) for effective H₂ separation from hydrocarbons. The ALD-modified silica membrane was used in PBMR for PDH reaction in combination with Pt/Al₂O₃ catalyst. Moreover, one-dimensional plug-flow reactor (PFR) model was established to investigate the effect of membrane properties and operating conditions on PDH reaction systems.