Lecture 9 Thursday 1/31/08

Membrane Reactors: Used for Thermodynamically

Limited Reactions

Balances in Terms of Molar Flow Rates

Block 1: Mole Balances

Balance Equation on Every Species
Block 2: Rate Laws
Relative Rates
Transport Laws
Block 3: Stoichiometry
Block 4: Combine

Multiple Reactions: Selectivety and Yield

Membrane Reactors
Dehydrogenation Reaction:
C3H8 ↔ H2 + C3H6 A↔B+C
exothermic endothermic
Thermodynamically Limited: XC XC
sweep
B
FA0 T T
A,B,C H2 H2
CBS
B

W = ρ bV A,C stay behind since they are

too big
ρb = (1-ϕ)ρC
1) Mole Balance: A: In – out + generation = 0
FA0 V  FA0 V  V  rA V  0

moles of B through sides  dFA

RB = A:
 rA
volume of reactor dV

B: In – out – out membrane + generation = 0

FB V  FB V  V  RB V  rB V  0

 dFB
 ( rB  RB )
B: dV
 membrane surface area DL 4
WB  kC` (C B  C BS ) a
reactor volume
 2 
D
4
L D
RB  WB a  kC` a C B  C BS  RB  kC  C B  C BS 
 dFA
1)  rA Neglected most of the time
dV
dF
2) dVB  rB  RB
3) dFC  rC
dV
 
4) rA  k C A  CB CC 
 KC 
Relative rates:  rA  rB  rC
1 1 1
5) rA  rB , rA  rC
RB  k C C B
6)
FA
7) C A  CT 0 F (isothermal, isobaric)
T
FB
8) C B  CT 0
FT
F
9) CC  CT 0 FC
T

10) FT  FA  FB  FC
Parameters: CTO = 0.2, FA0= 5, k = 4, KC = 0.0004, kC = 8
Multiple Reactions

A  B 
kD
D rD  k D C A2 C B (Desired)
A  B 
kU
U rU  kU C AC B2 (Undesired)

Selectivity Yield
Instantaneous SD/U = rD/rU yD = rD/-rA

Overall ŜD/U = FD/FU ŷD = FD/(FA0-FA)

rD k D C A2 C B k D C A
S D /U   2

rU ku C AC B kU C B