Pervaporation membrane reactors for transesterifications: development and modelling.

Membrane-based devices (i.e. pervaporation membrane reactors) have been developed for performing reactions where an ester and water are produced (esterification reactions) since the equilibrium is shifted by a simultaneous removal of water from the reaction medium. The idea for this project is to go beyond the study of esterification reactors and develop membrane reactors for reactions where the separation to be performed is between an ester and an alcohol (transesterification reactions), which is a difficult organic-organic separation. Reactive distillation has been suggested as an alternative but it has been shown that it may not lead to a full conversion for reactions with low reaction rate. Thus, the overall objective of this project is to understand how pervaporation membrane reactors can be used to enhance transesterification reactions. This comprises two specific objectives: development of an indepth experimental study of a transesterification reactor (objective 1), intertwined with the development of system modelling based on reaction kinetics, reactor configuration and transport through pervaporation membranes (objective 2). As a starting point, the transesterification of methyl acetate and n-butanol to yield n-butyl acetate and methanol will be considered, opening a new field of research.

Keywords:Experimental, Pervaporation membrane reactors, Modelling, Transesterification reactions

Disciplines:Other engineering and technology