Competencies and Services
Contact
Core competencies
- full-range synthesis and characterization capabilities for porous solid catalysts
- modeling and simulation capabilities for multi-phase reactions and chemical reactors
- capabilities for steady-state and dynamic experimentation under technical conditions
Types of services
- consulting at all stages during chemical process development
- literature research for the state-of-the-art of chemical processes
- concept development for improved chemical processes
- planning, execution and evaluation of experiments for catalyst and reactor design
- model-based design and optimization of chemical reactors and process conditions
- evaluation of data and discrimination of empirical models
Development of porous solid catalysts
- catalyst preparation via various methods, e.g., wet impregnation, hydrothermal synthesis
- catalyst characterization, e.g., physi- and chemisorption, temperature-programmed experiments (TPX)
- catalyst performance testing in various test rigs, e.g., heterogeneously catalyzed gas and gas-liquid reactions
Determination of reaction kinetics
- experimental aqusition of kinetic data for catalyzed and stoichiometric reactions
- model based determination of kinetic parameters from experimental data
- design of experiments for kinetic data acquisition
Design and development of chemical reactors
- mathematical model development and numerical simulations for multi-phase reactors
- optimization of design parameters and operation strategies
- experpimental validation of reactor design in lab-scale
- model-based scale-up of reactor design
Equipment and Facilities
Laboratory infrastructure
- continuous reaction experiments in 24/7 operation mode
- safety measures for toxic and explosive gas handling (CO, H2, NH3)
- capabilities for high pressure experiments with H2 (ca. 100 bar)
- experimental test rigs and safety protocolls for automated operation
Experimental test rigs
- Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (continuous, ca. 25 bar, 400 °C)
- Ammonia synthesis and cracking (continuous, ca. 80 bar, 800 °C)
- heterogeneously catalyzed gas phase reactions (continuous, ca. 20 bar, 900 °C)
- transient periodic experiments (continuous, ca. 10 bar, 400 °c)
- non-/catalyzed gas-liquid reactions (continuous, ca. 15 bar, 100 °C)
- stirred autoclave for gas-liquid reactions (dis-/continuous, 200 bar, 300 °C, 300 mL)
Analytic devices
- on-line gas chromatographs (CO, CO2, CH4, Ar, He, N2, NH3, hydrocarbons)
- off-line gas chromatograph (hydrocarbons)
- mass spectrometers (100 amu)
- N2 physisorption (micro and mesopores)
- chemisorption with H2 and CO (dynamic and volumetric method)
- temperature-programmed experiments (TPX)
Simulation software
- Python software packages
- AspenTech University Program
- MatLab package
- COMSOL Multiphysics
Further equipment
- lab equipment: autoclaves, centrifuges, furnaces, etc.
- high speed camera and infra-red camera
- Raman process spectrometer