Inorganic Catalytic Membranes for Methanol Production

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This is an investigation of a novel membrane reactor in which carbon monoxide and hydrogen are catalytically converted into methanol. This is an important reaction, for example, in the conversion of syngas to liquids. It is proposed that under conditions of strong adsorption of the methanol on the membrane surface, for a small enough pore size through the membrane, a surface diffusion mechanism may dominate transport through the membrane and give a higher permeability of methanol than one or more of the reactants. This expedited award will allow the investigator to search for conditions under which methanol is selectively passed by a ceramic membrane. A major economic impediment to more widespread use of the technology to produce renewable fuels is that the equilibrium constant is very small, resulting in very small conversions of carbon monoxide to methanol per pass. To use a membrane reactor to improve conversions by selectively removing methanol from the reaction mixture, conditions must be found under which a ceramic membrane will selectively pass the reaction product, methanol, out of the reactor, thus resulting in much higher yields and much better economics.