Current hurdles in the commercial development of inorganic membrane reactors

Abstract

This article is a summary of a presentation which was given at the 4th International Conference on Catalysis in Membrane Reactors (ICCMR 2000), which was held 3–5 July 2000 in Zaragoza, Spain. At an earlier ICCMR meeting which was held during 1994 in Lyon, France there was some optimism that by now we would see some commercial implementations of catalytic membrane reactors. In the event this optimism has proved to be unfounded. Not only are there no immediate commercial prospects for catalytic membrane reactors, but we have yet to see any ceramic gas separation membranes in industrial use. This article will examine why this should be the case. It will also look at the underlying reasons, the progress made so far, and the problems which still need to be resolved.