Recent Advances in the Development of Highly Conductive Structured Supports for the Intensification of Non-adiabatic Gas-Solid Catalytic Processes: The Methane Steam Reforming Case Study

Structured catalysts are strong candidates for the intensification of non-adiabatic gas-solid catalytic processes thanks to their superior heat and mass transfer properties combined with low pressure drops. In the past two decades, different types of substrates have been proposed, including honeycomb monoliths, open-cell foams and, more recently, periodic open cellular structures produced by additive manufacturing methods. Among others, thermally conductive metallic cellular substrates have been extensively tested in heat-transfer limited exo- or endo-thermic processes in tubular reactors, demonstrating significant potential for process intensification. The catalytic activation of these geometries is critical: on one hand, these structures can be washcoated with a thin layer of catalytic active phase, but the resulting catalyst inventory is limited. More recently, an alternative approach has been proposed, which relies on packing the cavities of the metallic matrix with catalyst pellets. In this paper, an up-to-date overview of the aforementioned topics will be provided. After a brief introduction concerning the concept of structured catalysts based on highly conductive supports, specific attention will be devoted to the most recent advances in their manufacturing and in their catalytic activation. Finally, the application to the methane steam reforming process will be presented as a relevant case study of process intensification. The results from a comparison of three different reactor layouts (i.e. conventional packed bed, washcoated copper foams and packed copper foams) will highlight the benefits for the overall reformer performance resulting from the adoption of highly conductive structured internals.

Process intensification in Desalination operation in mesoscale systems

Development of desalination technologies has been identified as vital to fulfilling future water demand. Directional solvent extraction is one of the promising membrane-less seawater desalination method. Membrane based desalination technologies incur a higher cost and are subjected to fouling after certain period of time of operation and needs regular maintenance and monitoring. It is believed that, overcoming these drawbacks is possible by working in the millimeter scale through the incorporation of pulsatile flow and air damper. This work presents a theoretical approach designed for a certain nominal length of an air damper, placed on the top of the extraction column, with the flow in the desalination unit being semi pulsatile combined with secondary pulsation generated due to air suspension during solvent extraction applied for desalination operation. Henceforth a theoretical approach based on the above stated parameters, it is found theoretically that with increase in flow pulsation amplitude and frequency the extracted salt concentration in solvent increases. The application of infra red radiation in preheating section with the help of a infrared heating device is the crucial part of DSE process, cooling is planned to achieve via a heat exchanger or atmospheric cooling. The total exergy and energy calculations will be conducted to see the energy requirement for the process. It is planned to calculate the salt separation efficiency of sea water (on the basis of WHO guidelines) to fresh water, alongwith flow rate and processing time.

Process Intensification in Chemical Reaction Engineering

In the present review article, the definitions and the most advanced findings within Process Intensification are collected and discussed. The intention is to give the readers the basic concepts, fixing the syllabus, as well as some relevant application examples of a discipline that is well-established and considered a hot topic in the chemical reaction engineering field at present.

Challenges in Predictive Modeling of Single Pass Tangential Flow Filtration for Continuous Biomanufacturing

Opportunities for process intensification and increased productivity have made the field of Continuous Biomanufacturing an area of high interest and active research. Within the purification train of producing biologics, Tangential Flow Filtration (TFF) is typically employed after chromatographic separations, to increase drug substance concentration, making the process more economical and further meeting dosage specifications. In a batch operation, concentration occurs via recirculation of the feed material where desired output concentration is attained through multiple pump-passes over the TFF membrane, while steadily excluding the buffer. Single-Pass Tangential Flow Filtration (SPTFF) enables continuity of this process by achieving similar concentration factors through a single – pass over these membranes while operating at low feed flow rates. Our work elucidates the development of a mechanistic process model to predict SPTFF performance across a relatively wide design space using a first principles approach. The developed model is found to be accurate for a range of high feed flow rates but is inaccurate at flow rates below 25 L/m2/hr. At very low flow rates, small differences in the mass transfer coefficient have been observed to significantly alter the prediction of the retentate concentration. We thus describe the challenges in predictive process modeling of SPTFF in antibody biomanufacturing.

Selective Catalytic Reduction of NOx Over Hierarchical Cu-ZSM-5 Coated on Ceramic Foam Support

The development of structured catalysts for process intensification is of growing interest in catalytic processes due to heat and mass transfer limitations at an industrial scale. This limitation can be...