Selective oxidation of 1-butene by molecular oxygen in a porous membrane Taylor flow reactor

A Taylor flow membrane reactor was developed and tested in the reaction of selective oxidn. of 1-butene to Me Et ketone by a Pd2+-heteropoly anion aq. catalyst. The reactor enables macroscopic sepn. of oxygen and hydrocarbon streams by a liq. layer at the membrane interface, thus avoiding the formation of potentially explosive vapor mixts. even when pure reagents are used at elevated pressures. Gas-liq. Taylor flow in the tube side of the membrane was studied using glass capillaries and carbon membranes. Exptl. mass transfer data were used to validate the reactor model. On the basis of the comparison of exptl. results and model prediction, the hydrophilic carbon membrane is believed to be fully wetted by the aq. catalyst. The gas-liq. mass transfer of 1-butene in the Taylor flow regime was shown to be the rate-limiting step. Both the exptl. data and the reactor simulation confirmed that under the mass transfer limiting regime the concn. of reactants in the liq. phase is negligible, which is necessary to obtain the sepn. of the gaseous feed components and thus prevent the potential for formation of explosive hydrocarbon/oxygen mixts. [on SciFinder (R)]