Process Engineers Use New Catalysts to Solve Old Problems

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Interdisciplinary Effort in Demand

The development and subsequent implementation of a catalytic process requires an interdisciplinary effort involving process engineers and chemists as well as materials and safety engineers. However, new catalyst recipes only find their way into industrial production if they open a totally new process window, significantly increase selectivity or extend catalyst life.

The latter is a huge factor in heterogeneous catalysis. Ideally, service life is around two years which equates to 16,000 hours of operation. If a world-scale line continues to operate for just an additional 24 hours due to the longer life of the catalyst, the turnover generated can be considerable. Once the deactivation process is understood, accelerated deactivation testing based on techniques borrowed from electrical/electronic engineering can be used to estimate the life of the catalyst.

Prof. Leslaw Mleczko, Key Expert Chemical and Polymer Processes and Vice President of Bayer Technology Services, points out that methods developed at Bayer Technology Services have a proven track record and can deliver good results in heterogeneous catalysis.

Reaction kinetics represents another challenge. From the thermodynamic standpoint, there is still work to do on nearly all reactions. Experts like Prof. Robert Schlögl, Director of MPG’s Fritz Haber Institute/Germany, estimate that optimal catalysts could easily reduce energy consumption by half in the chemical industry.

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