The big challenge facing the chemical industries in the 21st century is the transition towards more sustainable manufacturing processes that efficiently use raw materials/energy and eliminate waste. Within this framework, catalysis engineering is recognized as the most important key enabling technology that has a substantial impact on key manufacturing sectors such as petroleum, energy, chemicals, pharma, and food industry (about $ 10 trillion of the world’s Gross National Product) and highly contributes to the green deal, by reducing energy intensity for these products by 20% to 40% by 2050.
To solve all these issues, an in-depth understanding of the phenomena occurring at the catalyst surface with atomic resolution and their micro-kinetic consequences within the reactor in conditions relevant to the industrial process is of paramount relevance. Currently, a novel operando multi-technique reactor operating under realistic process-relevant conditions is still missing. During the ERC “SHAPE” Stg (n. 677423), we have developed a spatially-resolved operando-Raman annular reactor able to provide a detailed real-time local information of the catalyst’ behaviour along the reactor, under strict kinetic control and nearly isothermal conditions for heterogeneous catalysis. The SPECTROKIN project aims to perform the technical-commercial feasibility of our integrated operando annular reactor by moving forward a ready-to-use equipment for academic and industrial labs, paving the way to a family of innovative devices.
The project will start in spring of 2021.