Concurrent engineering application to characterize structured catalysts

Abstract EN

The performance of catalysts ؛s known to be strongly influenced by diffusion of reactants and products in the catalyst substrate so the overall performance is a function of the interaction between the intrinsic kinetics and the transport processes.

This is not a straightforward problem mainly because complications arise due to the complex transport networks so it is essential to develop procedures which can provide the basis of an objective method to determine catalyst pore structures and effective transport coefficients which can be used in conjunction with the intrinsic kinetics.

In recent years, catalyst developers have been designing super hydrotreating catalysts to enhance the internal mass transfer to provide better access into the internal active sites through the engineering of optimum pore structures in terms of pore distribution and connectivity and by minimizing the dead-end pores.

To characterize the structured catalyst, a novel analytical procedure is developed in this work which involves both experimental work and model simulation.

Clearly, to develop such an analytical technique involves multi-disciplinary personnel drawn from all levels of research and development operations including engineers, scientists, programmers, and technicians.

Each needs to access a certain amount of data and information, some of which may be common, although the formats and structures may be incompatible and prohibit interchange.

Effective communication and collaboration are essential to provide the information in a form which is natural to the individual user while preserving the underlying integrity of the information base.

This requires an effective mechanism to harvest such a wealth of information and make it readily available to anyone in need of it.

For this purpose, it is essential to have an information system that collects, processes and controls all real-time and time series information and data.

This work is concerned with developing an analytical procedure based on mathematical modeling for interpreting experimental data to characterize the structured catalyst with respect to the pore connectivity, pore size distribution, and the presence of dead-end pores.

A systematic environment using the latest information technology to assist in the characterization procedure is also developed.