Lecture Courses.

 

            The content of these courses can be adjusted to suit local requirements. 

 

Characterization, Measurement and Modelling of Catalyst Decay.

A series of five 1-hour lectures plus a 1-hour tutorial review for postgraduate students who are undertaking research projects in heterogeneous catalysis.  The course is also suitable for industrial training of new recruits (chemists and chemical engineers).  Some problems will be set for consideration between lectures and these will be considered in the tutorial. The course was first presented to post-graduate students from Glasgow and Heriot-Watt universities in November 2005.

 

Learning Objectives: basic understanding of the main mechanisms of catalyst decay; diagnosis of the causes of catalyst decay from reaction data and analytical characterization; insight into the measurement and modelling of catalyst decay.

Typical Synopsis.
Lectures 1 and 2.
  Introduction.  Basic concepts in applied heterogeneous catalysis. Background to catalyst decay: industrial importance, economics, timescales. Mechanisms of catalyst decay and their characterisation. Sintering of metal particles and supports, phase transformations, poisoning, fouling including carbon deposition (coking).
Lectures 3 and 4. Kinetics of catalyst decay.  Decay models: empirical and mechanistic.

Influence of reactor profiles. Impact of pore-resistance. Monitoring catalyst performance.
Lecture 5.  Case study on modeling catalyst decay. Summary and Conclusions.

 

Industrial Catalyst Decay. 

This course is primarily aimed at industrial scientists (chemists or chemical engineers) who are engaged in process support and/ or catalyst research.  It consists of two sections which can be taken separately or combined to make an extended course.  Each part consists of a 2-hour lecture (or two 1-hour lectures) plus optional sessions for case-histories and/or problem solving.  The content of part I was developed originally for internal company workshops within ICI and was later presented as a plenary lecture at the 1st NICE Workshop on Catalyst Testing and Characterisation (June 1997, DECHEMA, Frankfurt-on-Main, Germany). The case study was developed for a module of the Integrated Graduate Development Scheme (IGDS) at the University of Liverpool.  The content has since been extensively developed and extended.

 

I Monitoring the Performance of Process Catalysts

This section has already been presented to scientists and chemical engineers engaged in the manufacture and use of heterogeneous catalysts within major companies in Europe and the USA.

Typical Synopsis.

Why monitor catalyst performance? Economics of catalyst life. Mechanisms of catalyst decay.

Post mortem characterization. Monitoring the performance of the process catalyst. Use of models

Kinetics of catalyst decay. Prediction of catalyst life. Plant data.  Lifetime performance optimization.
Plus a brief outline of research techniques for investigation of catalyst decay.

Optional: case history in catalyst performance monitoring

 

II Measurement and Modelling of Catalyst Decay

This section includes a detailed examination of research techniques for the investigation, measurement and modelling of catalyst decay at research, pilot and plant scale and includes techniques for accelerated decay.

 

Cost of catalyst decay           What this consultancy can do for your business.

 

About John Birtill.                  Some lectures and publications.                    Contact details.

 

           

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