Patent ID: 8568510

Claim:
A reaction process, comprising: (a) providing a reaction zone; (b) introducing a first reaction stream comprising a reagent A and a second reaction stream comprising a reagent B into the reaction zone; (c) reacting reagents A and B, thereby forming a reaction mixture comprising a reaction product P, unreacted reagent A, and at least one inert component C; (d) withdrawing at least a portion of the reaction mixture from the reaction zone; (e) providing a membrane having a feed side and a permeate side, and being selectively permeable to reagent A over reaction product P, and to reagent A over component C; (f) passing at least a portion of the withdrawn portion of the reaction mixture across the feed side; (g) passing a stream containing reagent B as a sweep stream across the permeate side; (h) withdrawing from the feed side a product stream depleted in reagent A and enriched in the reaction product P compared with the reaction mixture; (i) withdrawing from the permeate side a permeate stream comprising reagent A and reagent B; and j) recirculating at least a portion of the permeate stream to the reaction zone as at least part of the second reaction stream.