Disrupting fine chemicals manufacturing with catalyst-coated tube reactors

Project Information

Stoli Catalysts

Grant agreement ID: 848926

DOI

10.3030/848926

Project closed

EC signature date 4 June 2019

Start date 1 July 2019

End date 30 June 2022

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 1 682 750,00

EU contribution

€ 1 177 925,00

Coordinated by

STOLI CATALYSTS LTD
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - Stoli Catalysts (Disrupting fine chemicals manufacturing with catalyst-coated tube reactors)

Reporting period: 2021-07-01 to 2022-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The production of chemicals in all sectors is vital to almost every facet of daily life. Chemical manufacturing is involved in many aspects of society from electronics & technology, medicines, hygiene and food, to cars, transportation and materials. With an ever-expanding population and a growing need to tackle global climate change, innovative solutions are needed to ensure that chemical production is efficient; that the innovative solutions save costs, improve labour productivity and decrease the impact on the environment.
One important class of catalytic reactions is those with a gas and a liquid over a solid catalyst, such as hydrogenation. Currently, gas-liquid-solid processes are carried out almost exclusively using batch technology. The high capital expenditure, poor reaction control and long market delay costs of such methods mean inevitably that opportunities to employ novel means of affecting this kind of chemistry in a cheaper and sustainable way are very attractive. Indeed, continuous processes can decrease manufacturing costs by up to 80%, however, there is yet to be a successful product that delivers this at scale and at a competitive price.
In order to combat this, Stoli Catalysts has designed and demonstrated a 100 kg/day miniplant to bring an affordable solution to the market.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the first reporting period, problems such as catalyst development and scale-up of our proprietary technology were tackled. In order to achieve this, new catalysts and supports have been developed for various hydrogenation processes. As well as this, problems such as flow distribution and catalyst production were also addressed, allowing us to coat tubular reactors on a much greater scale than before.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Stoli Catalysts has demonstrated that scale-up of chemical processes can be achieved in flow in several ways, through efficient gas-liquid mixing and the tuning of flow dynamics and mass transfer. These benefits allow better use of catalysts in our reactor systems that enable us to drive costs down and intensify processes.
We have advanced the technology and filed a new patent; we are trialling the pilot internally and look for end-user tests during the 3rd year of the project as COVID restrictions are being lifted. The pilot tests enable us to generate reaction data that will inform future decisions on tailoring our flow chemistry solutions to suit the customer’s needs. Through this approach, we deliver cost and labour efficiency savings that allow chemical production through these processes to become more efficient and sustainable.

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