Experimental and model based study of the hydrogenation of acrolein to allyl alcohol

The hydrogenation of acrolein was investigated experimentally in a fixed-bed reactor (FBR) using several classical and a newly developed hydrogenation catalyst. The aim was to evaluate selectivity and yield with respect to the desired product allyl alcohol. The kinetics of the two main parallel reactions of acrolein hydrogenation were quantified for a supported silver catalyst which offered the highest performance. In a second part the reaction kinetics identified were used in a theoretical study applying a simplified isothermal 1D reactor model in order to analyse the hydrogenation of acrolein performed in single- and multi-stage packed bed membrane reactors (PBMR). The goal of the simulations was to evaluate the potential of dosing one reactant in a distributed manner using one or several membrane reactor stages. The results achieved indicate that the membrane reactor concept possesses the potential to provide improved yields of allyl alcohol compared to conventional co-feed fixed-bed operation