Hydrogen Selective Layer for Dehydrogenation Membrane Reactor

Dehydrogenation of organic compounds is an important reaction to produce several chemicals e.g., olefins, amides, aldehydes, etc. It can also be a good source of hydrogen to be used in other purposes such as hydrogenation reaction and fuel cell. An approach in using membrane reactor by selectively remove hydrogen byproduct to optimize the process is gaining attention. To the date, palladium and its alloys are the best hydrogen selective membrane materials. However, its commercialization is still limited due to several hurdles namely high price and deactivation of Pd layer. On the other hand, some promising hydrogen selective materials have also been tested for dehydration membrane reactor application. This paper will discuss about hydrogen selective layer performance and its limitation. Several modifications and strategies to overcome said problems will also be elaborated.