Preparation of hybrid membrane reactors and their application for partial oxidation of propane with CO2 to propylene

Three types of supported hybrid membranes and Pd-Cu/MoO3-SiO2 catalyst were prepared. The chemical structure, thermal stability, pore size distribution and gas permeability of hybrid membranes were characterized by methods of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), nitrogen adsorption and gas permeability measurement, and their applications for partial oxidation of propane with carbon dioxide to propylene were studied in membrane catalytic reactors. The experiment results showed that three types of hybrid membranes have good thermal stability, excellent gas permeability and hydrophilic properties. The water vapor could permeate through three types of hybrid membranes in a greater rate than C3H8, C3H6, CO2 and CO gas. Under proper reaction conditions, the reaction results in membrane catalytic reactors are all higher than those in conversional catalytic reaction. The conversion of propane is obviously beyond the equilibrium conversion when the hybrid membrane reactors were used to instantaneously withdraw the product H2O. The effects of the membrane reactors on the catalytic reaction performances were mainly related to the membranes permselectivity and the separation factors of H2O.