The Effect of Pd/Ag Ceramic Membrane on Propane Dehydrogenation

The catalytic dehydrogenation of propane as an initial material in propylene production is very important. The application of Pt-Sn/γ-Al2O3 as a industrial catalyst in dehydrogenation process of propane has shown to be very active and selective. Using membrane reactors is the suitable method for solving the thermodynamic limitation of this process. In this study, the dehydrogenation of propane has been investigated by using a membrane reactor. This study is based on two parts; first the manufacturing of membrane and its structure are investigated and, in the other section, the application of membrane to dehydrogenation is studied. The investigation of membrane surface morphology and XRD show the existence of a Pd-Ag homogeneous phase. The effects of different parameters such as temperature, He/propane ratio, and propane flow on conversion and propene selectivity have been investigated. This reaction has been performed with and without a membrane. The results show that the application of membrane increases the conversion from a range of 19.78-43.24 to 21-47.13 and raises the selectivity from 41.36-79.86 to 50.71-89.44.