Abstract：Propane dehydrogenation to propene is becoming more and more important, with the ever-increasing demand for propene. Propane dehydrogenation reaction is reversible and highly endothermic, which reduces the efficiency of existing of propane dehydrogenation processes. This work proposed a membrane reactor combining propane dehydrogenation and hydrogen combustion. On the one hand, removing hydrogen could shift the reaction equilibrium towards propene; on the other hand, the reaction heat of hydrogen combustion could be used to drive the strongly endothermic propane dehydrogenation reaction. A two-dimensional non-isothermal model for the membrane reactor was developed to simulate the combined process of propane dehydrogenation and hydrogen combustion. The membrane reactor and the conventional fixed bed reactor were compared in reactor performance, and the effects of operating pressure and feed temperature on the performance of the membrane reactor were investigated. The results showed that the membrane reactor had a much higher propane conversion and propene yield comparing to the conventional fixed bed reactor. The membrane reactor could overcome the limitation of propane dehydrogenation reaction equilibrium, and thus it could be operated under high pressures. A low feed temperature was not favorable in enhancing outlet propane conversion and a high feed temperature was not favorable in increasing outlet propene yield, which indicating an optimal feed temperature. When the reaction pressure was 0.15 MPa and the feed temperature was 823 K, the outlet propane conversion for the membrane reactor reached 0.990, and the outlet propene yield was 0.940. This work should provide a mathematical model and some theoretical guidance for developing membrane reactors for propane dehydrogenation.
CHEN Jiaxuan,HU Rui,ZHANG Qunfeng et al. Stimulation of Propane Dehydrogenation Combined with Hydrogen Combustion in a Membrane Reactor[J]. Chemical Reaction Engineering and Technology, 2021, 37(5): 433-445.
