Chemical Reaction Engineering: Equipment and Services

Competencies and Services

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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