DEHYDROGENATION OF PURE CYCLOHEXANE IN THE MEMBRANE REACTOR AND PREDICTION OF CONVERSION BY PSEUDO EQUILIBRIUM-MODEL

Three kinds of membrane reactor, porous Vycor glass, ceramic Sol-gel, and Palladium-silver membrane reactors, are used to study the dehydrog enation of pure cyclohexane. The reactors are intended to be applied a s chemical heat pumps, therefore they were fed with pure cyclohexane. The experimental results show that the higher conversions exceeding th e equilibrium one, alpha(eq) = 6.4%, were achieved up to 27% and 11% f or Pd-Ag (PT-2), and porous Vycor glass membranes respectively. A pseu do equilibrium (PE) model was proposed to predict the conversion achie ved in the reactor. In the Damkohler number (Da) range employed of 1.0 5-4.48, the model is in good agreement with the experimental results, The prediction becomes less accurate with increasing pressure differen ce.