SBIR Phase I: Development and Validation of Palladium Supported on Hierarchically Porous Monolithic Carbon Catalysts

该小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将开发持久的、分层多孔的整体式碳催化剂载体，该载体需要大大降低贵金属催化剂负载量，同时提高化学品制造商的催化效率。一直存在对更好的催化剂的需求，以提高当前和新的化学工艺技术中的产量、产率和纯度。由所提出的技术提供的在各种长度尺度下的高孔隙率允许反应物和催化剂之间更紧密的接触，减少所需的贵金属催化剂的量，同时还增强催化剂性能，避免由于催化剂活性、选择性和完整性的损失而导致的昂贵的工艺扰乱和停工。这些碳载体通过最大化催化剂纳米颗粒的分散性和减小催化剂纳米颗粒的尺寸来实现这一目标，从而延长寿命并提高性能。在这个第一阶段项目中，该公司将进一步开发这种催化剂，确定它增强的工业相关化学反应，并将其有效性与目前可用的催化剂进行比较。所涉及的研究将提供在实验室和中试规模固定床反应器中测试催化剂所需的必要数据。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是，正在开发的分层多孔整体碳催化剂有望成为更持久的催化剂，更有效地利用贵金属，有限的资源。这种活性更高的催化剂可以降低化学反应中的操作温度，从而减少能源使用，并使产品具有更少的杂质，需要更少的纯化步骤。因此，成功将影响化学工业的生态和商业可持续性。待测试的催化剂代表了新类别的分级多孔催化剂载体中的第一种，因此该新产品的进一步验证将为引入具有这些上级性质的广泛类别的催化剂提供基础。如果成功，将继续制造这类新的催化剂，从而在美国创造就业机会。这项技术的早期采用者可以预期更少的化学反应器停机时间和增加的化学品产量，从而增加营业收入，使他们比竞争对手具有明显的优势。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop long lasting, hierarchically porous monolithic carbon catalyst supports that require greatly reduced precious metal catalyst loadings while improving the catalytic efficiency for chemical manufacturers. There is an ever present need for better catalysts to increase throughput, yields, and purity in current and new chemical process technologies. The high porosity at various length scales afforded by the proposed technology allows for more intimate contact between the reactants and catalyst, reducing the amount of precious metal catalyst needed while also enhancing catalyst performance avoiding expensive process upsets and shutdowns due to loss of catalyst activity, selectivity and integrity. These carbon supports accomplish this by maximizing the dispersity and decreasing the size of the catalyst nanoparticles, resulting in longer lifetimes and improved performance. In this Phase I project the company will further develop this catalyst, identify industrially relevant chemical reactions that it enhances, and compare the effectiveness to currently available catalysts. The research involved will provide the necessary data needed to test the catalyst in lab and pilot scale fixed bed reactors. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is that the hierarchically porous monolithic carbon catalyst being developed promises a longer lasting catalyst with more efficient utilization of precious metals, a limited resource. This more active catalyst can lower the operating temperature in chemical reactions thereby decreasing energy usage and giving products with fewer impurities, requiring a smaller number of purification steps. Success will therefore impact both ecological and commercial sustainability in the chemical industry. The catalyst to be tested represents the first of a new class of hierarchically porous catalyst supports and so further validation of this new product will provide the foundation for introduction of a broad class of catalysts with these superior properties. If successful, manufacturing of this new class of catalysts will be pursued, leading to job creation in the United States. The early adopters of this technology can expect less chemical reactor downtime and increased chemical production, resulting in increased operating income giving them a clear advantage over their competitors.