SBIR Phase I: Catalyst Development MicroReactor

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目建议开发一种用于催化剂测试应用的新型微制反应器。该新型反应器将使催化剂发现过程大大加强，将提高在该过程的催化剂表征阶段获得的动力学数据的质量，并将降低与测试相关的运营成本。将要开发的技术在很大程度上依赖于麻省理工学院开发的两个微型反应堆设计。拟议的项目将专注于设计、制造和测试建立在麻省理工学院技术基础上的催化剂测试反应堆。由此产生的高度理想化的等压、等温、差示催化剂试验反应堆还将能够快速且可控的温度变化和量热反应速度监测。该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是，它为多相催化剂的发现和表征过程提供了使能技术。多相催化是最关键的工业技术之一，在化学、医药和能源领域有着广泛的应用。就纯市场而言，催化剂的年销售额超过100亿美元/年，并带来数万亿美元的经济价值。这项新的反应器技术将取代过时的传统管式反应器技术，并在催化剂开发领域推进技术，而过去几十年来，催化剂开发领域并未取得太大进展。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)Phase I project proposes to develop a novel microfabricated reactor for catalyst testing applications. The novel reactor will enable substantial intensification in the catalyst discovery process, will improve the quality of the kinetic data obtained during the catalyst characterization phase of the process, and will reduce operating costs associated with the testing. The technology to be developed relies heavily on two micro reactor designs developed at MIT. The proposed project will focus on designing, fabricating and testing a catalyst test reactor that builds on the MIT technology. The resulting highly idealized isobaric, isothermal, differential catalyst test reactor also will be capable of rapid and controlled temperature changes and calorimetric reaction rate monitoring.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is that it provides enabling technology for the process of discovery and characterization of heterogeneous catalysts. Heterogeneous catalysis represents one of the most critical industrial technologies, with extensive applications across the chemical, pharmaceutical, and energy fields. In pure market terms, annual catalyst sales exceed $10 B/year, and leads to trillions of dollars of economic value generation. This new reactor technology will replace the dated conventional tube reactor technology and advances technology in the area of catalyst development, which hasn't seen much progress over the last several decades.