Use of membrane reactors for the oxidation of butane to maleic anhydride under high butane concentrations

The oxidation of butane to maleic anhydride (MA) has been carried our in an inert membrane reactor, where a mesoporous membrane was used to distribute oxygen to a fixed bed of VPO catalyst. The study was carried out using rel atively high butane/oxygen ratios (up to seven times higher than those curr ently used in industrial practice), some of which would have been in the ex plosive range if fed to a fixed bed reactor. The maximum MA yields obtained were respectively 17.7 and 14.2% for 5 and 10% total butane concentrations in the feed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.