Increases of up to 1.5 times the traditional equilibrium limit are reported for a membrane-assisted reactor system with the dehydrogenation of butane as a model system. The use of thermally stable polymer-ceramic composite membranes to remove product hydrogen from the dehydrogenation reaction system has been evaluated as a function of the reaction temperature from 480 to 540 degrees C. At low temperatures, the system was stable for run times over 550 h with normal butane conversions increasing from 22 to 33% through the use of the membrane. Under these conditions, the selectivity of the catalyst for the production of butenes was greater than 90% and was not markedly affected by the presence of the membrane. At equivalent conversion levels, the catalytic selectivity was equivalent with or without the membrane in the system.