A BATCH MEMBRANE REACTOR FOR LABORATORY STUDIES

A membrane reactor consisting of two recirculating flow systems connec ted via a membrane module has been constructed and used to study the d ehydrogenation of cyclohexane. When the reactor is operated differenti ally it is possible to obtain the same information that is generated w hen using more conventional steady flow reactors. The batch system has the advantages of easily varying the ratio of membrane area to reacto r volume and sampling a very wide range of effective Damkohler numbers . These are important variables in design studies. This ability has be en demonstrated for the dehydrogenation of cyclohexane. The batch syst em reproduced results from studies using a more conventional flow reac tor. In addition, with the batch reactor it was possible to experiment ally confirm predictions that were based upon computer simulation but which were outside the range of experimental study for the conventiona l reactors used.