Data collection, catalyst performance

The data most frequentiy collected and reported in catalyst performance evaluations are activity or turnover number, selectivity to the desired product(s), overall yield, catalyst life, and the identities and yields of by-products produced. These data are used to further catalyst or process development research efforts, to monitor catalyst manufacture, and to provide quaUty assurance information to catalyst users. 

The current experimental setup, with its excellent temporal resolution afforded by rapid-scan data collection, allows us to perform kinetic measurements of catalysts in parallel. An example of this can be seen in the measurements of reaction order and apparent activation energies during CO oxidation over supported rhodium... 

The STAR fuel processor represents a culmination of three years of intensive R D and design efforts. Prior to their use in the integrated fuel processor, all components were tested in the MPR. Figure 4 compares the expected and obtained performance of the water-gas-shift catalyst in the MPR. Similarly, the MPR testing validates the desulfurizer performance data collected on the bench scale reactor (Table 2). The sulfur capacity was the same in both the MPR and the bench scale reactor. 

The data harmonization was performed on several hydrocarbon species and CO oxidation as well as on NO, -CO reaction. A small review of some of the data treated in this study is presented in Table 1. The first four columns in Table 1 indicate the experimental variables such as the catalyst type, the sample weight, the gas volumetric flow rate and inlet gas mixture composition. The fifth column reports the calculated space velocity based on the given data, and in the last column the reference from which the data were collected is given. There are several factors to note in the information presented in Table 1. 

Ethylene oxide catalyst research is expensive and time-consuming because of the need to break in and stabilize the catalyst before rehable data can be collected. Computer controlled tubular microreactors containing as Httle as 5 g of catalyst can be used for assessment of a catalyst s initial performance and for long-term life studies, but moving basket reactors of the Berty (77) or Carberry (78) type are much better suited to kinetic studies. 

Fixed-bed reactors are used for testing commercial catalysts of larger particle sizes and to collect data for scale-up (validation of mathematical models, studying the influence of transport processes on overall reactor performance, etc.). Catalyst particles with a size ranging from 1 to 10 mm are tested using reactors of 20 to 100 mm ID. The reactor diameter can be decreased if the catalyst is diluted by fine inert particles the ratio of the reactor diameter to the size of catalyst particles then can be decreased to 3 1 (instead of the 10 to 20 recommended for fixed-bed catalytic reactors). This leads to a lower consumption of reactants. Very important for proper operation of fixed-bed reactors, both in cocurrent and countercurrent mode, is a uniform distribution of both phases over the entire cross-section of the reactor. If this is not the case, reactor performance will be significantly falsified by flow maldistribution. 

Catalytic performances in ethylene ammoxidation as function of reaction temperature of the different catalysts are compiled in Table 2. Data were collected under stationary conditions after a transition period of one hour. All catalysts are active and selective toward acetonitrile. Wherein, Cr-Cl catalyst exhibits the higher ethylene conversion and the higher acetonitrile selectivity. Chromium with highly oxidation state (VI) seems to play a key role in the ammoxidation reaction as confirmed by TPR and DRS spectroscopy results. This idea is strongly supported by the difference between catalytic behaviour of Cr03 and Cr203 supported on ZSM-5. Nevertheless, Cr(III) oxide seems to... 

Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) data were collected via a Siemens D5005 diffractometer with CuKa radiation (A. = 1.5418 A). Routine transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Z-contrast microscopy were carried out using an HITACH HD-2000 scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) operated at 200 kV. Nitrogen gas adsorption measurements (Micromeritics Gemini) were used to determine the surface area and porosity of the catalyst supports. Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) analysis was performed via an IRIS Intrepid II XSP spectrometer (Thermo Electron Corporation). 

Most industrial reactors and high pressure laboratory equipment are built using metal alloys. Some of these same metals have been shown to be effective catalysts for a variety of organic reactions. In an effort to establish the influence of metal surfaces on the transesterification reactions of TGs, Suppes et collected data on the catalytic activity of two metals (nickel, palladium) and two alloys (cast iron and stainless steel) for the transesterification of soybean oil with methanol. These authors found that the nature of the reactor s surface does play a role in reaction performance. Even though all metallic materials were tested without pretreatment, they showed substantial activity at conditions normally used to study transesterification reactions with solid catalysts. Nickel and palladium were particularly reactive, with nickel showing the highest activity. The authors concluded that academic studies on transesterification reactions must be conducted with reactor vessels where there is no metallic surface exposed. Otherwise, results about catalyst reactivity could be misleading. 

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