The catalytic dehydrogenation of isobutane to isobutene in a palladium/silver composite membrane reactor

Isobutane dehydrogenation to isobutene has been investigated experimentally and by modelling for a membrane reactor and a fixed bed reactor under similar operating conditions using a Pt/alumina catalyst. Reaction kinetics were obtained from experiments in the fixed bed reactor. Comparative tests showed that the membrane reactor achieved much higher yields of isobutene and also gave higher selectivities, with less by-products than the fixed bed system. Using the kinetic data, the simulations gave good agreement with the fixed bed experiments, but over predicted the yields from the membrane reactor. Analysis of these results indicated that in the membrane reactor the hydrogen permeability of the membrane was much greater than its hydrogen transfer requirement and that the reaction rate was the determining factor for isobutene yield.