Abstract - Tsotsis Inorganic membranes have been the subject of research for liquid and gas separations. The interest in such membranes is due to their unique thermal and mechanical properties and their chemical and microbiological resistance. Inorganic membranes are today finding applications in areas like the food and pharmaceutical industries, in waste water treatment and in catalysis. Membrane reactors combine reaction and separation in a single unit operation. The membrane selectively removes from the reaction zone species, which would otherwise thermodynamically or kinetically limit the reaction progress. This, in turn, increases the reactor yield and results in diminished downstream separation requirements and smaller operational costs. The goal of this project is to gain a better understanding of how liquid macromolecules diffuse and react in small pores (typical of those found in membranes and catalysts). The principal invetigators' interests are in petroleum liquids. They plan to investigate the applicability of ceramic membrane reactor technology in the area of oil and asphaltene hydroprocessing and to study, in depth, the relevant technical questions and issues. Two types of alumina ceramic membranes will be studied, membranes prepared by anodic oxidation of aluminum, primarily for fundamental transport and reaction investigations, and membranes prepared by the Sol-Gel technique, for similar investigations, but also for testing the catalytic membrane reactor concept. Both kinds of membranes have a virtually unimodal pore size distribution and show excellent separatory functions, but have di stinctly different surface properties and unique pore structures. & 1z CONTROL INI d `3 WINTUTORDAT @ j CALC EXE @ j !@ SOLID2 BMP 1vX ANALYSTSBMP P :.vX CHITZ BMP @ j " M PBRUSH EXE @ j 'P DING WAV @ j "N- EGYPT BMP @ j #v SQUARES BMP @ j 4v Abstract - Tsotsis Inorganic membranes have been the subject of research for liquid and gas separations. The interest in s 0 2 } 2 ! ! ! F 2 2 ( Times New Roman Symbol & Arial " h ?% ?% ?% 6 / Maria K. Burka Maria K. Burka
