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Development of Packed Bed Membrane Reactor for the Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Propane Samenstelling Promotiecommissie

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Development of Packed Bed Membrane Reactor for the Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Propane Samenstelling Promotiecommissie Development of packed bed membrane reactor for the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane Samenstelling promotiecommissie: Prof. dr. ir. L. Lefferts, voorzitter Universiteit Twente Prof. dr. ir. J. A. M. Kuipers, promotor Universiteit Twente Dr. ir. M. van Sint Annaland, assistent-promotor Universiteit Twente Dr. ir. H. J. M. Bouwmeester Universiteit Twente Prof. dr. ir. H. van der Meer Universiteit Twente Prof. dr. J. G. E. Gardeniers Universiteit Twente Prof. dr. ir. J. C. Schouten Technische Universiteit Eindhoven Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. S. Heinrich Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg Publisher: Gildeprint B.V., Enschede, e Netherlands Copyright © by Ž. Kotanjac All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means, including, but not limited to electronic, mechanical, photocopying, record- ing, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author. ISBN --- Development of packed bed membrane reactor for the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Twente, op gezag van de rector magnificus, Prof. dr. H. Brinksma, volgens besluit van het College van Promoties, in het openbaar te verdedigen op vrijdag december om . uur door Željko Kotanjac geboren op september te Kraljevo (Servië) Dit proefschri is goedgekeurd door de promotor: Prof. dr. ir. J. A. M. Kuipers en de assistent-promotor Dr. ir. M. van Sint Annaland Оцу Светиславу, за испуњење давног обећања Preface An increasing and long lasting demand for lower olefins, especially propylene, gave a strong motivation to scientists all over the globe to search for an alternative production route. One of the most promising ones was oxidative dehydrogenation of propane, oen referred as ODHP, which, compared to thermodynamically unfavored non-oxidative de- hydrogenation, could bring larger yields of desired propylene. is was one of the reasons why e Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) decided to support fi- nancially a project on the development of a reactor concept for the selective oxidation of propane for olefin production, which result, in the form of this thesis, is in front of you. To achieve the goals set in the project proposal, prof. dr. ir. Hans Kuipers decided to give me an opportunity to start this long, but rather interesting trip into a world of engineering science. us, a big and special thanks goes to him, for all what he has done for me in the past few years. It is impossible to express how much freedom he gave me in my research: so many brainstorming discussions, extremely intelligent remarks and excellent explanations for all the problems I had encountered in my work and his bird-eye view on a subject have helped that this thesis comes to the light. As this was a joint project of two research groups, I would also like to express my gratitude to prof. dr. ir. Geert Versteeg, who offered me to start working on this project in his group and whom I am deeply indebted for my coming to e Netherlands. His scientific support and supervision were much more than a graduate student can expect from his professor! My daily supervisors, dr. ir. John Niederer and dr. ir. Martin van Sint Annaland I am very grateful for creating just the right hue of relaxed and productive work environment that I had the privilege of enjoying the past years. eir ideas, their help, and especially their unique brand of enthusiasm form the bedrock on which much of this thesis was built. Experimental work definitely couldn’t be performed without the best technicians I’ve ever met — special thanks goes to Benno, Wim, Johan, Erik and Gerrit not only for con- structing my experimental setup, but also for their smart technical advices, without which I would never have my setup working properly. ey were always willing to leave all their work and help me when something went wrong, thus, once more — thank you. Secretaries Irene and Nicole I am grateful for handling all administrative work for me in the past years and for being a friendly-ear for all my complaints. My colleagues from both, OOIP and FCRE group, I would like to thank for creating a good and stimulating atmosphere. ii Preface Y Moving towards more personal acknowledgments, I would like to thank all my friends for their support and enormous amount of patience they had with me — it was quite difficult to listen about all my problems with experiments, modeling, lab equipment, weird result numbers, and so on. На краjу, желео бих да се захвалим своjим родитељима и сестри, за свесрдну и несебичну подршку и помоћ током свих ових година. Њихово разумевање за све моjе проблеме и веровање у мене су ми увек давали мотивациjуиохрабрењеуоства- ривању моjих великих циљева и без њих никада не бих постао ово што сам данас. Enschede, Željko Kotanjac November Contents 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Introduction .................................... 3 1.2 Current processes for light olefins production ................. 4 1.3 Research objectives ................................ 10 1.4 esis outline .................................... 10 References ......................................... 11 2 Literature Survey 13 2.1 Introduction .................................... 15 2.2 Catalysts ....................................... 15 2.3 Process conditions ................................. 19 2.4 Kinetics and kinetic models for ODH of light alkanes ............ 23 2.5 Novel reactor concepts for ODHP ........................ 25 2.6 Conclusions .................................... 29 References ......................................... 30 2.A Kinetic models for the ODHP .......................... 39 3 Kinetics of the ODHP over Ga2O3/MoO3 based catalyst 43 3.1 Introduction .................................... 45 3.2 Catalyst ....................................... 46 3.3 Experimental setup ................................ 50 3.4 Experimental conditions ............................. 52 3.5 Kinetic experiments ................................ 57 3.6 Results and discussion .............................. 58 iv Contents Y 3.7 Reaction mechanism and kinetic model .................... 64 3.8 Conclusions .................................... 65 References ......................................... 66 4 Modeling of a packed bed membrane reactor for the ODHP 69 4.1 Introduction .................................... 71 4.2 General model assumptions ........................... 71 4.3 Description of the PBMR model ......................... 74 4.4 Results and discussion .............................. 78 4.5 Conclusions .................................... 90 References ......................................... 93 4.A Transport parameters ............................... 96 4.B Physical properties ................................. 98 5 Experimental demonstration of ODHP in a PBM reactor 103 5.1 Introduction ....................................105 5.2 Objectives ......................................105 5.3 Experimental ....................................105 5.4 Results and discussion ..............................112 5.5 Conclusions ....................................118 References .........................................118 Summary 121 Samenvatting 125 Сажетак 129 About the author 133 1 Introduction With an increasing demand for lower olefins, especially propylene, it is anticipated that the existing routes for its production will become insufficient, which paves the road for the de- velopment of a new process — the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane. Not suffering from thermodynamic limitations, as is the case with direct dehydrogenation processes, not produc- ing carbonaceous deposits which may deteriorate the catalytic activity and with a possibility to produce propylene at much lower temperatures without expensive heat exchange equip- ment (i.e. improved energy efficiency), this new process is potentially very promising. e oxidative dehydrogenation of propane has been an important research area for a number of years. e research described in this thesis focuses on the reactor technology development for this process. In this chapter a brief introduction to the process of oxidative dehydrogenation of propane will be given, together with the research questions and the thesis outline. Introduction 3 Y 1.1 Introduction in synthesis processes because of their high chemical activity in the reactions. e total amount of ethylene and propy- L lene consumed in by the global chemical industry have been estimated to be about Mton and . Mton, respectively []. Propylene, one of the most valuable petrochemicals, is nowadays produced either by steam cracking of liquid feedstocks such as naphtha as well as LPGs, where propylene comes out as a by-product [], or is recovered from off-gases produced in fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) units in refineries (see Table .). e remainder of propylene (currently only %, but growing) is produced via on-purpose technologies such as propane dehydrogenation (PDH) and metathesis. Table 1.1: Commercial sources of world propylene production in , according to Walther [] World production Annual growth, Propylene source million tons % share %, – Steam crackers . Refinery FCC units . Metathesis/cracking/dehydrogenation . Methanol-to-olefins design stage − − Total . e primary source of propylene as a side product is from cracking naphtha and other liquids such as gas oil and condensates, which mainly produces ethylene. By altering the cracking severity and the feedstock, the propylene:ethylene ratio can be increased from .: to .:. Smaller amounts of propylene
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