Membrane Reactor

A membrane reactor is a piece of chemical equipment that combines a catalyst-filled reaction chamber with a membrane to add reactants or remove products of the reaction.

Chemical reactors making use of membranes are usually referred to as membrane reactors. The membrane can be used for different tasks:

• Separation
  • Selective extraction of reactants
  • Retention of the catalyst
• Distribution/dosing of a reactant
• Catalyst support (often combined with distribution of reactants)

Membrane reactors are an example for the combination of two unit operations in one step e.g. membrane filtration with the chemical reaction.