Pilot-Scale Cyclohexanone Production through Phenol Hydrogenation over Pd/CN in a Continuous Ceramic Membrane Reactor

One-step phenol hydrogenation is a green process for cyclohexanone production. In this work, a pilot-scale cyclohexanone production by phenol hydrogenation over Pd/CN was successfully realized for the first time in a continuous ceramic membrane reactor, which was constructed by a three-stage continuous stirred tank reactor in series coupled with a side-stream membrane separation system. The continuous ceramic membrane reactor system could be steadily operated over 85 h with a cyclohexanone yield of ∼80%.