1.

1 Esterifikasi

Ester can be produced through esterification process with the reaction of a carboxylic acid with
alcohol in the presence of a mineral acid. Heterogeneous acid catalysts are genrally used in this type of
conversion because it could withstand a low temperature process. So as to overcome thermodynamics
equilibrium, it is necessary to add excess amount of alcohol or carboxylic acid to shift the equilibrium to
the formation of the products.

There are some scientists that tried different approaches for the application of esterification in
the process of seperation with membrane, they are: Souza Figueiredo et al, studied the PV esterification
reaction drom acetic acid and ethanol for the production of ethyl acetate using two different processes:
(1) reaction and seperation are done in a different process; (2) reaction and seperation are done in the
same process. Zhang et al used the application from catalytic membrane in a PV-assisted esterification
process between acetic acid and n-butanol using three-layered membrane; the top layer is made of
porous catalytic layer; the middle layer is using PVA selective dense layer and polyethersulfone (PES)
support. Porous UF poluethersulfone (PES) catalytic membrane was used by El-Zanati and Abdallah for
the esterification between ethyl hexanoic acid and ethanol for the production of ethyl hexanoic ester.

1.2 Hydrogenation

Membrane has several advantages in a ydrogenation reaction that happened in a liquid state.
There types of reaction usually carried in a high presure so that it increases the solubility of H 2 in organic
substances, on the other side, could provide three-phase contact avoiding the use of high pressure.
Hydrogenation of the furfural to the furfuryl alcohol is an industrial process that is relevant for
producing resins. Lately, Bagnato et al has developed a novel catalytic membrane that modify a
commercial PES membrane surface with the help of acrylic acid and RU nano particles. When it is
applied for the hydrogenation from the furfural, the membrane yielded a 26% conversion after 30
-1
minutes passed with a selectivity over 99% and a turnover frequency of 48,000 h , which was the best
result when compared with literature data.

1.3 Oxidation

Favoured method to produce maleic anhydride (MA) is now based on butane, that replaced the
past synthetic route that was based on partial oxidation of benzene. Butane has some advantages over
benzene, such as: lower cost, lowe r toxicity and higher availability. But, the flammability of butane that
is relatively high, limit the idea of using butane over 2 vol %. From the study of Crus-Lopez et al, the use
of catalytic MR allowed to operate the oxidarion process of the reaction in a higher butane
concentration using MFI/alumina membrane.

Partial oxidation of methane used to convert CH 4 to syngas (CO and H2). The development of
plants can operate this conversion, but it faced certain problems mainly because of the reaction is
partially exothermic that it created hot spot problems. MR could face this limitation that controlled
reaction stoichiometery and interaction of reactants.