Scalable thin-layer membrane reactor for heterogeneous and homogeneous catalytic gas-liquid reactions

作者：Mo Yiming; Imbrogno Joseph; Zhang Haomiao; Jensen Klavs F^*

来源：Green Chemistry, 2018, 20(16): 3867-3874.

DOI：10.1039/c8gc01917g

Catalytic gas-liquid reactions have potential as environmentally benign methods for organic synthesis, particularly hydrogenation and oxidation reactions. However, safety and scalability are concerns in the application of gas-liquid reactions. In this work, we develop and demonstrate a scalable, sustainable, and safe thin-layer membrane reactor for heterogeneous Pd-catalyzed hydrogenations and homogenous Cu(I)/TEMPO alcohol oxidations. The implementation of a Teflon amorphous fluoroplastic (AF) membrane and porous carbon cloth in the membrane reactor provides sufficient gas-liquid mass transfer to afford superior performance compared to conventional packed-bed or trickle-bed reactors. The membrane separates the gas from the liquid, which avoids the formation of explosive mixtures for oxygenation reactions and simplifies the two-phase hydrodynamics to facilitate scale-up by stacking modules, while significantly reducing gas consumption. In addition, 3-dimensional simulations deliver insights into the mass transfer and hydrodynamic behavior to inform optimal membrane reactor design and operation.

• 出版日期2018-8-21
• 单位MIT