The big challenge facing the chemical and related industries in the 21st century is the transition towards more sustainable manufacturing processes that efficiently use raw materials/energy and eliminate waste. In this respect, catalysis is playing a pivotal role, by designing proper process conditions able to efficiently exploit energy and material resources. Low conversion, low activity and selectivity towards the desired products, short lifetime of catalyst due to poisoning/deactivation, high cost in catalyst regeneration/recycling and limited insight of catalytic paths are key issues for industries and for research labs seeking new catalysts. This calls for the ability of nano-designing catalytic materials and optimizing processes based on functional understanding rather than empirical testing. In this regard, the possibility of collecting experimental information on the catalyst behavior both on structure and activity is paramount in any effort. This requires that availability of proper instruments able to perform such measurements. To this purpose, during the ERC Stg “SHAPE” (n. 677423), we have developed the prototype of a spatially-resolved operando-Raman annular reactor able to provide a detailed real-time local information of the catalyst’ behavior along the reactor, under strict kinetic control and nearly isothermal conditions for heterogeneous catalysis. In this ERC-PoC project, we have upgraded and optimized the prototype to the industrial needs, thus successfully developing an operando catalyst equipment.
In particular, during the project, from a technical point of view we have:
a) optimized the pre-heater in order to reduce the maximum temperature peak and increase the total surface area for the heat-exchange between the pre-heater and the gas stream;
b) optimized the control loop of the catalyst temperature: the current solution in place is based on the use of the heating tape temperature as a control variable;
c) optimized the design of the thermal control and management of the reactor and the movement of the reactor
d) studied and tested the extension from Raman-spectroscopy to UV-vis spectroscopy
Moreover, we have also explored and studied the commercial feasibility of the developed equipment, with the specific intent of identifying market opportunities.
