Development of high temperature catalytic membrane reactors. Final report

Early efforts in 1992 were focused on relocating the membrane reactor system from Alcoa Separation Technology, Inc.`s Warrendale, PA facility to laboratory space at the University of Pittsburgh Applied Research Center (UPARC) in Harmarville, PA following the divestiture of Alcoa Separations to US Filter, Inc. Reconstruction was completed in March, 1992, at which time the reactor was returned to ethylbenzene dehydrogenation service. Efforts on ethylbenzene dehydrogenation to styrene focused on optimizing hybrid reactor performance relative to packed bed operation. Following this, the reactor system was converted to isobutane dehydrogenation. Experimentation on isobutane dehydrogenation focused on design of an inert reactor, evaluation of commercial light alkane dehydrogenation catalysts, and modeling of membrane reactor performance relative to the performance of a packed bed reactor. This report summarizes the effort in 1992 on the development of ceramic membranes as dehydrogenation reactors. In addition, outside interactions on behalf of this investigation are discussed