ROMEO

  This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 680395.  

Title

Reactor optimisation by membrane enhanced operation

Concept

The integration of reaction and downstream processing steps into a single unit is of central importance in order to achieve a new level of process intensification for catalytic driven and eco-friendly reaction systems. This disruptive technology concept has the ability to reduce the total energy consumption of large volume industrial processes by up to 78%. Additionally, emissions can be reduced by up to 90%.

To achieve this, HOMOGENEOUS catalysts are supported on membranes. Embedding the homogeneous catalysts in thin films of non-volatile ionic liquids (SILP technology) will maintain their catalytic abilities as in the homogeneous phase while the anchoring directly on the membrane ensures a most efficient separation.

The new technology concept will be proven by two prominent large volume reaction types: a) Processes with undesired consecutive reactions like hydroformylation and b) Equilibrium driven reactions like water gas shift (WGS) reaction.

These processes for bulk chemicals and bio energy applications have been chosen to demonstrate the high impact of the ROMEO technology in an industrial near environment.

Participants

• Evonik Performance Materials GmbH, Germany (Coordinator)
• Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
• Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, Denmark
• Bioenergy 2020+ GmbH, Austria
• LiqTech International A/S, Denmark
• European Membrane House, Belgium
• Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain
• Linde AG, Germany
• Evonik Technology & Infrastructure GmbH, Germany