Development of multiphase reactor technologies for the defossilization of commodity chemicals production

开发用于大宗化学品生产去石化的多相反应器技术

• 批准号: RGPIN-2022-04315
• 负责人: Pjontek, Dominic
• 金额: $ 2.04万
• 依托单位: University of Western Ontario
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=746699
• 关键词: Development; multiphase; reactor; technologies; defossilization

Innovative technologies are urgently needed to address continuously growing global energy consumption. Chemical industries must adapt to achieve net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050. The integration of hydrocarbons in the chemical industry, largely producing carbon-rich compounds, makes complete decarbonization nearly impossible. Instead, the industry must immediately move towards defossilization, making use of renewable feedstocks (captured CO2 and sustainable hydrogen) to replace fossil-carbon feedstocks (i.e., crude oil, natural gas, and coal) to produce commodity chemicals. The proposed research program combines lab-scale experimental studies and modeling predictions for process scale-up to resolve the complex reaction networks and intricate transport phenomena required to design innovative CO2 conversion reactor technologies. Gas-liquid-solid (GLS) reactors are promising for converting sustainable feedstocks due to their reduced energy use by eliminating vaporization requirements as well as their operational flexibility with catalyst deactivation and/or the generation of immiscible liquid phases. The two objectives of the proposed research program include the development of heterogenous catalytic routes for CO2 conversion using GLS reactors, and interfacial area and flow behaviour predictions for the scale-up of CO2 conversion processes. CO2 can be converted to single carbon products (e.g., methanol) via direct hydrogen reduction. Conversion to chemicals with two or more carbons (e.g., alkanes, dimethyl ether, light olefins, higher alcohols) is also attractive based on their increased value. The first objective aims to overcome the persistent issues that hinder the adoption of industrial CO2 conversion to commodity chemicals by: (i) identifying water-tolerant catalysts, (ii) reducing catalyst costs while maintaining CO2 conversion and product selectivity; and (iii) exploring reactor configurations with in-situ water removal while considering thermodynamic limits. Gas-liquid transport phenomena also plays a critical role for these processes, where the gas-liquid mass transfer resistance is a crucial scale-up parameter. Extrapolation of lab-scale measurements to industrial-scale units with complex multicomponent liquids operating at elevated pressures and temperatures is still an unresolved challenge. The second objective will use pilot-scale experiments to measure micro-scale gas and solid flow characteristics under industrially relevant conditions. These will be combined with computational fluid dynamic simulations to advance interfacial area and flow behaviour predictions during scale-up, specifically for prospective CO2 conversion processes. Canada must significantly reduce its dependence on fossil-carbon materials in the next decade to meet its climate change goals. The proposed research program, focusing on the sustainable conversion of captured CO2, will provide the foundations required to move towards chemical industry defossilization.

迫切需要创新技术来应对不断增长的全球能源消费。化学工业必须适应到2050年实现二氧化碳净零排放。碳氢化合物在化学工业中的整合，主要产生富碳化合物，使得完全脱碳几乎不可能。相反，该行业必须立即走向去碳化，利用可再生原料（捕获的二氧化碳和可持续的氢气）取代化石碳原料（即，原油、天然气和煤）生产日用化学品。拟议的研究计划结合了实验室规模的实验研究和建模预测，以解决设计创新的CO2转化反应器技术所需的复杂反应网络和复杂的传输现象。气-液-固（GLS）反应器由于其通过消除蒸发要求而减少的能量使用以及其在催化剂失活和/或不混溶液相的产生方面的操作灵活性而有希望用于转化可持续的原料。拟议的研究计划的两个目标，包括使用GLS反应器的CO2转化的非均相催化路线的发展，和界面面积和流动行为预测的CO2转化过程的规模。CO2可以转化为单碳产品（例如，甲醇）。转化为具有两个或更多碳的化学品（例如，烷烃、二甲醚、轻质烯烃、高级醇）也基于其增加的价值而具有吸引力。第一个目标旨在通过以下方式克服阻碍采用工业CO2转化为商品化学品的持续存在的问题：（i）确定耐水催化剂，（ii）降低催化剂成本，同时保持CO2转化率和产品选择性;以及（iii）探索具有原位除水的反应器配置，同时考虑热力学限制。气-液传输现象在这些过程中也起着关键作用，其中气-液传质阻力是一个关键的放大参数。将实验室规模的测量外推到具有在升高的压力和温度下操作的复杂多组分液体的工业规模的单元仍然是一个未解决的挑战。第二个目标将使用中试规模的实验来测量工业相关条件下的微尺度气体和固体流动特性。这些将与计算流体动力学模拟相结合，以提高界面面积和流动行为预测在规模扩大，特别是对未来的二氧化碳转化过程。加拿大必须在未来十年内大幅减少对化石碳材料的依赖，以实现其气候变化目标。拟议的研究计划，侧重于捕获的二氧化碳的可持续转化，将提供所需的基础，走向化学工业去甲烷化。