Residue curve maps of reactive membrane separation

A batch reactive membrane separation process is analysed and compared with a batch reactive distillation process by means of residue curve maps. In both processes, the chemical reaction takes place (quasi-) homogeneously in the liquid bulk phase and vapour-liquid equilibrium is assumed to be established. Additionally, in the reactive membrane separation process, selective vapour phase permeation through a membrane is incorporated.A model is formulated which describes the autonomous dynamic behaviour of reactive membrane separation at non-reactive and reactive conditions when vacuum is applied on the permeate side. The kinetic effect of the chemical reaction is characterized by the Damköhler number Da, while the kinetic effect of multicomponent mass transfer through the membrane is characterized by the matrix of effective mass transfer coefficients. The process model is used to elucidate the effect of selective mass transfer on the singular points of reactive membrane separation for non-reactive conditions (Da=0), for kinetically controlled reaction (0<Da<∞), and for equilibrium controlled reaction (Da→∞). Scalar, diagonal and non-diagonal mass transfer matrices are considered. As examples, the simple reaction A⇔B+C in ideal liquid phase, and the cyclization of 1,4-butanediol to tetrahydrofurane in non-ideal liquid phase are investigated.     

Theoretical and experimental study on residue curve maps of propyl acetate synthesis reaction

Residue curve maps (RCMs) of propyl acetate synthesis reaction in the batch reactive distillation process are studied. In order to adapt the model equations of residue curve maps to a practicable heating policy, the theoretical analysis and experimental measurements in this paper are carried out isothermally instead of the autonomous heat policy first introduced by Venimadhavan et al. (A.I.Ch.E. Journal 40 (1994) 1814-1824). The chemical equilibrium constant of this reaction is determined by experiments to be 20 within the temperature range 80-110 °C. Using this equilibrium constant, the RCMs predicted by simulation are in good agreement with the experimental measurements. The results show that there is an unstable node branch emerging from the propyl acetate-water edge, moving toward the chemical equilibrium surface with the increasing Damköhler number (Da), and eventually reaching the quaternary reactive azeotrope when Da→∞. Residue curves are measured with initial compositions around the unstable node, and thus the results verify the existence of this reactive azeotrope. Further bifurcation analysis shows that different heat policies will influence the singular points and topology of kinetically controlled RCMs, but not the cases when Da=0 or Da→∞.     

Modeling and simulation of an integrated multi-shell fixed bed membrane reactor with well-mixed catalyst pattern for production of styrene and cyclohexane

A rigorous two-dimensional steady state mathematical model based on the dusty gas model is implemented to investigate the performance of a bench-scale integrated multi-shell fixed bed membrane reactor with well-mixed catalyst pattern for simultaneous production of styrene and cyclohexane. Since the styrene producing reaction is equilibrium limited, significant displacement of the thermodynamic equilibrium is achieved by three simultaneous actions of an auxiliary hydrogenation reaction of benzene using a well-mixed catalyst pattern, the membrane and the multi-shell reactor configuration. The simulation results show that the complete conversion of ethylbenzene is possible at relatively low temperature and shorter reactor length. Effective operating regions with optimal conditions are observed and explanations offered. An effective length criterion for the optimal conditions is presented. The effective operating regions are found to be sensitive to changes of catalyst bed composition, feed temperature, feed pressure and shells ratio. It is also found that the multi-shell configuration is superior to the single shell configuration. Although this investigation is restricted to two catalysts and two shells, some of the rich characteristics of this system have been uncovered.     

Selective permeation and separation of steam from water–methanol–hydrogen gas mixtures through mordenite membrane

Separation properties of a mordenite membrane for water–methanol–hydrogen mixtures were studied in the temperature range from 423 to 523 K under pressurized conditions. The mordenite membrane was prepared on the outer surface of a porous alumina tubular support by a secondary-growth method. It was found that water was selectively permeated through the membrane. The separation factor of water/hydrogen and water/methanol were 49–156 and 73–101, respectively. Even when only hydrogen was fed at 0.5 MPa, its permeance was as low as 10⁻⁹ mol m⁻² s⁻¹ Pa⁻¹ up to 493 K, possibly suggesting that water pre-adsorbed in the micropores of mordenite hindered the permeation of hydrogen. The hydrogen permeance dramatically increased to 6.5 × 10⁻⁷ mol m⁻² s⁻¹ Pa⁻¹ at 503 K and reached to 1.4 × 10⁻⁶ mol m⁻² s⁻¹ Pa⁻¹ at 523 K because of the formation of cracks in the membrane. However, the membrane was thermally stabilized in the presence of steam and/or methanol.     

Oxidative coupling of methane in Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3−δ tubular membrane reactors

A dense membrane tube made of Ba_0.5Sr_0.5Co_0.8Fe_0.2O_3−δ (BSCF) was prepared by plastic extrusion from BSCF oxide synthesized by the complexing EDTA-citrate method. The membrane tube was used in a catalytic membrane reactor for oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) to C₂ without an additional catalyst. At high methane concentration (93%), about 62% C₂ selectivity was obtained, which is higher than that achieved in a conventional reactor using the BSCF as a catalyst. The dependence of the OCM reaction on temperature and methane concentration indicates that the C₂ selectivity in the BSCF membrane reactor is limited by high ion recombination rates. If an active OCM catalyst (La-Sr/CaO) was packed in the membrane tube, C₂ selectivity and CH₄ conversion increased compared to the blank run. The highest C₂ yield in the BSCF membrane reactor in presence of the La-Sr/CaO catalyst was about 15%, similar to that in a packed-bed reactor with the same catalyst under the same conditions. However, the ratio of C₂H₄/C₂H₆ in the membrane reactor was much higher than that in the packed-bed reactor, which is an advantage of the membrane reactor.     

Optimization of CO2–CH4 separation performance of integrally skinned asymmetric membranes prepared from poly(2,6‐dimethyl‐1,4‐phenylene oxide) by factorial design

Integrally skinned asymmetric flat sheet membranes were prepared from poly(2,6‐dimethyl 1,4‐phenylene oxide)(PPO) for CO₂–CH₄ separation. Various experiments were carried out to identify PPO membranes, which have good mechanical strength and gas separation abilities. Membrane strength and selectivity depend on the interplay of the rate of precipitation and the rate of crystallization of the PPO. The effects of major variables involved in the membrane formation and performance, including the concentration of the polymer, solvent, and additive, the casting thickness, the evaporation time before gelation, and the temperature of the polymer solution, were investigated. Factorial design experiments were carried out to identify the factor effects. The membrane performance was modelled and optimized to approach preset values for high CO₂ permeance and a high CO₂ : CH₄ permeance ratio. Membranes were prepared based on the optimum conditions identified by the model. Essentially, defect‐free membranes were prepared at these conditions, which resulted in a pure gas permeance of 9.2 × 10⁻⁹ mol/m² s Pa for CO₂ and a permeance ratio of 19.2 for CO₂ : CH₄. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 72: 1601–1610, 1999     

Feasibility analysis,synthesis, and design of reactive distillation processes: A focus on double‐feed processes

A new approach for the feasibility analysis of reactive distillation processes based on the reactive extractive curve maps (rExCM) concept is introduced. A method dedicated to reactive distillation feasibility analysis, and design has been developed in our team since 1999. From minimal information concerning the physicochemical properties of the system, three steps lead to the design of the unit and the specification of its operating conditions. Currently, the procedure permits the conceptual design of hybrid reactive column configuration with one or two feed plates, for any number of equilibrium reactions (provided that the degree of freedom of the system is equal to 2) occurring in liquid or vapor phase. This contribution focuses on the most recent developments: the generalization of the feasibility analysis step to double‐feed processes thanks to the introduction of the rExCM concept. This methodology is illustrated through two examples: the emblematic methyl acetate example and the production of dimethyl methyl glutarate. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 58: 2346–2356, 2012     

Organophile Nanofiltration – Herausforderungen und Lösungsansätze zur Anwendung eines innovativen Membrantrennverfahrens

Coupling of innovative and conventional separation technologies has a large potential to improve the energy and solvent demands of existing processes. One example is organic solvent nanofiltration, a pressure‐driven membrane separation process suitable for applications in organic solvents. Challenges are mostly related to the conceptual and detailed process design. To address these challenges, a variety of different tools were developed, integrated within an overall five‐step design workflow and demonstrated on a case study.     

A theoretical analysis of non-chemical separation of hydrogen sulfide from methane by nano-porous membranes using capillary condensation

The potential of a nano-porous membrane to perform non-chemical separation of a gas mixture has been explored theoretically. Separation of hydrogen sulfide from its mixture with methane by capillary condensation has been selected as the model case. Because of its much lower condensation pressure compared to methane, hydrogen sulfide preferentially condenses in the fine pores and get transported by Poiseuille flow. Permeation rate up to 600 gmol/m² s bar has been achieved at a temperature lower than the critical temperature of the permeating species and higher than the critical temperature of the non-permeating species. Since methane has a much lower critical temperature than hydrogen sulfide, it gets physically dissolved in the condensed phase of hydrogen sulfide. An equation of state (EOS) approach ha s been adopted to calculate the fugacity of methane in the gas as well as in the condensed phase-in order to estimate its solubility. Computation of permeation flux of the condensed phase as well as of the separation factor of hydrogen sulfide has been performed over a wide range of temperature, pressure and gas composition. The separation factor which is expectedly a function of these variables, ranged from 700 to 100. The separation technique is expected to have an enhanced attraction since it is clean and does not require a solvent as in the conventional separation of acid gases.     

Analysis of potential singular point surface of reactive stripping processes

Reactive stripping involves non-condensable gas phase that not only removes the condensable components from the liquid phase but also is used as educt. To analyse the feasible products of reactive stripping process, a model is presented. The potential singular point surface (PSPS) is used as a tool to analyse the feasibility of products. Reactive distillation and reactive membrane process are regarded as two limiting cases of this model with fully condensable gas phase without stripping gas and with infinite gas flow rate, respectively. The influence of the mass transfer conditions and gas flow rate on the PSPS of special and general reactive stripping processes is investigated through hypothetical ternary systems. As expected, location and shape of the PSPS can be dramatically changed at different operating conditions of the process and of the physical properties of the involved components, which is helpful for optimising the suitable parameters for the desired product.     

Simulation and thermodynamic analysis of conventional and oxygen permeable CPO reactors

A one-dimensional steady-state heterogeneous model has been used to simulate the conventional CPO reactor. With the mechanism of O₂ permeable membrane, the model has been developed to simulate O₂ membrane reactor. The output temperature and the mole flow rates of different species in the tube side and the shell side can be calculated. They are the basis for the exergy analysis of the conventional CPO reactor with air, the conventional CPO reactor with pure O₂, and the O₂ permeable membrane CPO reactor. The simulation and exergy analysis results indicate that when the inlet conditions are the same, for a given methane conversion, the exergy efficiencies η₂ and η₁ of conventional CPO reactor with pure oxygen is lowest among the three reactors, because of the large amount of accumulative exergy required for obtaining pure oxygen.The exergy efficiencies η₁ and η₂ of membrane reactor are comparable with conventional CPO reactor with air and much higher than conventional CPO reactor with pure oxygen. As the membrane reactors can carry out simultaneous separation and reaction, in the mean time, removal of nitrogen from the product stream can be accomplished; the membrane reactor has advantages compared to other types of reactors.The operation of the membrane CPO reactor is more favourable when the inlet temperature is increased and the operation pressure is decreased from a thermodynamic point of view.     

Synthesis and optimization of membrane cascade for gas separation via mixed‐integer nonlinear programming

Currently, membrane gas separation systems enjoy widespread acceptance in industry as multistage systems are needed to achieve high recovery and high product purity simultaneously, many such configurations are possible. These designs rely on the process engineer's experience and therefore suboptimal configurations are often the result. This article proposes a systematic methodology for obtaining the optimal multistage membrane flow sheet and corresponding operating conditions. The new approach is applied to cross‐flow membrane modules that separate CO₂ from CH₄, for which the optimization of the proposed superstructure has been achieved via a mixed‐integer nonlinear programming model, with the gas processing cost as objective function. The novelty of this work resides in the large number of possible interconnections between each membrane module, the energy recovery from the high pressure outlet stream and allowing for nonisothermal conditions. The results presented in this work comprise the optimal flow sheet and operating conditions of two case studies. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 1989–2006, 2017     

Exergy analysis of desalination by solar-powered membrane distillation units

There has been an increasing interest in using exergy as a potential tool for analysis and performance evaluation of desalination processes where the optimal use of energy is considered an important issue. Unlike energy, exergy is consumed or destroyed due to irreversibilies in any real process and thus provides deeper insight into process analysis. Exergy analysis method was employed to evaluate the exergy efficiency of the “compact” and “large” solardriven MD desalination units. The exergy efficiency of the compact and large units with reference to the exergy collected by the solar collector was about 0.3% and 0.5% but was 0.01% and 0.05%, respectively, when referenced to the exergy of solar irradiance. The exergy efficiency of the flat plate solar collectors in both units varied diurnally and the maxima was 6.5% ad 3% for the compact and large units, respectively. The highest exergy destruction was found to occur within the membrane distillation module.     

Performance of a catalytic membrane reactor for the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis

The study of permeable composite monolith (PCM) membranes for the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis is continued. On the scale of membranes with outer diameter of 42 mm, it is proved that PCM can combine high productivity of hydrocarbons (>55 kg_C5+ ( h)⁻¹ at 0.6 MPa, 484 K), high selectivity towards heavy hydrocarbons (_ASF > 0.85, C₅₊ upto 0.9) as well as high heat-conductivity and high mechanical strength.     

Partial oxidation of methane in Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3−δ membrane reactor at high pressures

Oxygen permeation fluxes through dense disk-shaped Ba_0.5Sr_0.5Co_0.8Fe_0.2O_3−δ (BSCFO) membranes were investigated as a function of temperature (973–1123 K), pressure (2–10 atm), and membrane thickness (1–2 mm) under an air/helium gradient. A high oxygen permeation flux of 2.01 ml/cm² min was achieved at 1123 K and 10 atm under an air/He oxygen partial pressure gradient. Based on the dependence of the oxygen permeation flux on the oxygen partial pressure difference across the membrane and the membrane thickness, it is assumed that bulk diffusion of oxygen ions was the rate-controlling step in the oxygen transport across the BSCFO membrane disk under an air/He gradient. The partial oxidation of methane (POM) to syngas using LiLaNiO_x/γ-Al₂O₃ as catalyst in a BSCFO membrane reactor was successfully performed at high pressure (5 atm). Ninety-two percent methane conversion, 90% CO selectivity, and 15.5 ml/cm² min oxygen permeation flux were achieved in steady state at a temperature of 1123 K and a pressure of 5 atm. A syngas production rate of 79 ml/cm² min was obtained. Characterization of the membrane surface by SEM and XRD after reaction showed that the surface exposed to the air side preserved the Perovskite structure while the surface exposed to the reaction side was eroded.     

Extraction and analysis of extracellular polymeric substances in membrane fouling in submerged MBR

The extraction and analysis of EPS in active biomass and membrane fouling were performed to investigate the influence of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) on membrane fouling of MBR. The new membrane and fouling membrane surface morphology was characterized by EDX analysis. The results show that membrane contaminant is mainly composed of organic compounds. EPS in active biomass and membrane pollutant were extracted by method of alkaline regular centrifugation. Most of EPS were found to have high molecular weight over 12,000 D, which is very difficult to degrade. The total EPS contents in the extracted solution and the contents of polysaccharide protein and DNA in EPS were respectively analysed with TOC analysis and by phenol-sulfuric acid method, modification of the Bradford method and the fluorometric method. The analytical results indicate that the content of EPS in membrane fouling is about four times as much as that in active biomass, and polysaccharide is the most important pollutant on membrane, as well as protein’s role in membrane fouling is not negligible, whereas the DNA is not important in membrane fouling because of its content (non-dialysis) in membrane contaminant being less than that in the active biomass. In addition, the results in electrophoresis experiment provide the information about the concentrated distribution of molecular weight of large fragment DNA in both membrane contaminant and the biomass.     

Gas holdup of rotating foam reactors measured by γ‐tomography—effect of solid foam pore size and liquid viscosity

Rotating foam reactors have already shown to give high mass transfer rates compared to stirred tank reactors. For a deeper insight into the hydrodynamics of these reactors, the hydrodynamics of rotating foam reactors were studied using γ‐ray tomography. The two‐phase flow through the foam block stirrer is mainly influenced by the solid foam pore size and the liquid viscosity. For low viscosity, the optimal foam block pore size was identified in the range between 10 and 20 pores per inch (ppi). With smaller pore size, the gas holdup inside the foam block strongly increases due to bubble entrapment. For higher viscosity, pore sizes larger than 10 ppi have to be used to achieve a sufficient liquid flow rate through the foam block to avoid a strong gradient over the reactor height. The effect of the hydrodynamics on the gas–liquid and liquid–solid mass transfer and the reactor performance are discussed. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 59: 146–154, 2013     

Effect of membrane morphology in pervaporative separation of isopropyl alcohol–aromatic mixtures— a thermodynamic approach to membrane selection

Isopropyl alcohol (IPA)–benzene and IPA–toluene, which forms azeotropic mixtures, are commonly encountered in pharmaceutical industries. The present study deals with the use of pervaporation to separate these mixtures. For this purpose, several polymeric hydrophilic membranes with variation in solubility parameters such as regenerated cellulose or cellophane, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), cellulose acetate (CA), cellulose diacetate (CDA), and cellulose triacetate (CTA) were studied. Some of these membranes gave a gradual shift of azeotropic point according to the variation of solubility parameter and interaction parameter values between solute and polymer matrix. Regenerated cellulose film gave the best pervaporation performance in terms of IPA selectivity and durability. PVA showed high selectivity with reasonable flux. Poly(dimethylsiloxane), which is hydrophobic, was also studied as an aromatic selective membrane. The experiments were carried out over the entire range of 0–100% at 30°C. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 90: 3912–3921, 2003     

Optimal design of continuously stirred membrane reactors in series using Michaelis-Menten kinetics with competitive product inhibition: theoretical analysis

Analytical expressions were derived for the optimal design (based on the minimum of the volume of the total number of reactors) of N continuously stirred membrane reactors (CSMRs) performing the enzyme-catalyzed reaction described by Michaelis-Menten kinetics with competitive product inhibition. The influence of membrane selectivity for both substrate and product on the total dimensionless residence time of the reactors (overall volume) was determined. The optimal design of N CSMRs (variable volume reactors) was compared with equal volume membrane reactors required to achieve the same degree of substrate conversion. The effect of kinetic and operating parameters on the performance of membrane reactors was determined. Optimization results show that membrane reactors are superior to continuously stirred tank reactors (CSTRs) in series at a high substrate rejection coefficient and low product rejection coefficient, high substrate conversion and using a small number of reactors. Also a high dimensionless Michaelis-Menten constant, high dimensionless inhibition constant and low substrate concentration in the feed to the first reactor improved the performance of the membrane reactors vs. CSTRs in series. The reduction in total volume of the optimal membrane reactors compared to CSTRs in series was up to 86% for the conditions in this work. A comparison between the optimum and equal volume design of membrane reactors in series showed no major difference in total volume between the two design criteria at a practical range of operating conditions. A volume reduction up to 16% was observed for the conditions in this work.