Testing of catalyst

L. L. Anderson and D. A. Tillman, eds.. Introduction to Characterisation and Testing of Catalysts, Academic Press, New York, 1985. 

It is beyond the scope of this book to go though all the specifics of catalyst testing and to discuss all pitfalls that may arise. Instead we list the Ten Commandments for the Testing of Catalysts. This is a set of guidelines that have been provided by experts of a company called Catalytica [F.M. Dautzenberg in Characterization of Catalyst Development An Iterative Approach (Eds. S.A. Bradley, M.J. Gattuso, R.J. Ber-tolacini), ACS Symposium Series, Vol. 411 (1989)]. 

Stability tests of catalyst. All catalysts deactivate during their life by various causes (see Chapter 3). The aim of stability tests is to examine the cause and rate of deactivation. These experiments are usually performed at conditions similar to those planned for the commercial unit. In some cases, accelerated tests are carried out using a feedstock with an elevated level of impurities or at a temperature significantly higher than that anticipated for the full-scale reactor. A laboratory reactor used for such tests is usually a down-scaled reactor or a part of the full-scale-reactor. Standard analytical equipment is used. 

Testing of catalyst poisoning is best done in CSTRs since then all of the catalyst is exposed to the same concentration of impurity and the temperature is uniform. 

Testing of Catalysts in Liquid-Liquid, Gas-Liquid, and Gas-Liquid-Solid Reactions.411... 

TESTING OF CATALYSTS IN LIQUID-LIQUID, GAS-LIQUID, AND GAS-LIQUID-SOLID REACTIONS... 

Anderson, J. R. and K. C. Pratt. 1985. Introduction to Characterization and Testing of Catalysts. New York Academic Press. 

P. Claus, M. Baerns, Parallel Synthesis and Fast Catalytic Testing of Heterogeneous Catalysis, Microreaction Technology Parallel Preparation and Testing of Catalysts, 21st June 2001, Dechema, Frankfurt/Main, Germany, Book of Abstracts. 

Parallel Approaches to the Synthesis and Testing of Catalysts for Liquid-phase Reactions... 

Rodemerck, U., Ignaszewski, P., Lucas, A., Claus, P., Parallel synthesis and fast catalytic testing of catalyst libraries for oxidation reactions, Chem. Eng. Technol. 

Schuth, F., Hoffmann, C., Wolf, A., Parallel synthesis and testing of catalysts under nearly conventional testing conditions, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 1999, 38(18, 2800-2803. 

Zech, T., Honicke, D., in Proceeding of the Microreaction Technology Parallel preparation and Testing of Catalysts (21 June 2001), DECHEMA, Frankfurt/Main, 2001. Rose, S., Stevens, A., Computational design strategies for combinatorial libraries, Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 2003, 7, 331-339. 

The operating pressure should be as low as possible to prevent the formation of byproducts. On the other side higher pressure would be preferable for quenching and scrubbing of gases. Overpressures of 0.5 to 2 bar are preferable. As indication, Table 11.4 shows the test of catalyst activity as a function of pressure [9], Almost complete conversion of propylene may be seen and selectivity around 80% in acrylonitrile can be obtained. The data are representative for modern catalysts. 

Accelerated tests of catalyst coking What do they tell us ... 

---