Abstract: Dehydrogenation of ethanol to acetaldehyde was carried out in a membrane reactor/incorporating an inorganic alumina membrane, which was prepared by the sol-gel method.The characterization showed that the distribution of pore size was 3-5 nm, while permeability and separation factor were all in good accordance with Knudsen values.The effects of reaction temperature, space velocity, sweep ratio on the conversion of ethanol were investigated in membrane reactor and the results were compared with those obtained by using the conventional reactor.It is shown that in the membrane reactor, the yield of acetaldehyde was higher than that in the conventional reactor and furthermore, the yield of acetaldehyde was also increased by 5%-10% in comparison with that of the corresponding equilibrium conversion.It meant that the shift of the equilibrium of reaction was caused by separation hydrogen from the reaction zone.

Key words: Inorganic membrane, Membrane reactor, Dehydrogenation of ethanol