Continuous reactors for improved catalyst performance

Continuous reactors (flow reactors) have many attractive features with respect to batch or semi-batch reactors.[1] Continuous reactors have high performance thanks to their great heat transfer and efficient, rapid mixing. They are a safe option for reactions at high pressure and processes with explosive and dangerous reaction intermediates because they can be easily miniaturized. They are excellent for pharmaceutical processes because they are highly reproducible, "scale-up" problems are inexistent by using serial processing and purification processes are simplified due to the easy implementation of heterogeneous catalyst and reactants.
This project aims to expand even further the advantages of small-scale continuous reactors in catalytic reactions by developing multi-point injections reactors and transient separators of immiscible liquid-liquid reaction mixtures.
Multi-point injection flow reactors are used to emulate the processes run with slow dosing of reactants in batch reactors. Unfortunately, the constant dosing of reactants to a continuous flow would require an infinite number of injection points with a fine control of flow streams and pressures. Practically, this is impossible to achieve and the current state-of-the-art are flow reactors with 8 injection points. These reactors would be the analogous to a batch reactor with 8 additions of reactants,[2] far from the continuous slow addition of reactants. This reduced number of discrete addition points is insufficient for many catalytic reactions where the slow dosing of reaction components (reactant, additive or catalyst) is crucial for their performance and selectivity.
We will use innovative reactor designs based on fluid mechanics theory to overcome the limitation of the number of injection points. We will take advantage of the latest capabilities on 3D printing to rapidly produce and test small flow reactors with a reduced number of inlet ports but many effective addition points to the main reaction stream.
Transient separators of immiscible liquid-liquid reaction mixtures
Accurate reaction monitoring is an essential capability on reaction development and industrial implementation of catalytic reactions. It provides a deep understanding of reaction processes and allows the design, analysis and control of critical process parameters. The most informative technique to monitor catalytic organic reactions is, by far, NMR spectroscopy. However, this technique is unsuitable to study immiscible liquid-liquid reaction mixtures due to the impossibility of vigorously stirring the reaction mixtures inside an NMR spectrometer.
We will generate a microfluidic device that can fit inside any standard NMR spectrometer to separate the different phases for their analysis. The device will guarantee a perfect mixing just until the point of analysis, where it will sperate both phases, select one of them for analysis and remix both phases immediately after the analysis not to perturbate the overall reaction kinetics. The device will work as a flow reactor or as an accessory of the Bruker InsightMR Flow Tube to analyse reactions run in batch outside the NMR spectrometer.
In both projects we will analyse modern and industrially relevant catalytic organic reactions such as olefin metathesis,[3] aminocatalytic enantioselective alpha-chlorination of aldehydes[4] and phase-transfer catalytic enantioselective reactions (e.g. synthesis of atropisomeric biaryls[5]).
The design of the reactors will be led by Dr Julien Landel; the test and application of the devices on real cases will be led by Dr Jordi Bures.
[1] Valera, F. E. et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2010, 2478.
[2] Chapman M. R. et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 10535.
[3] Ogba, O. M. et al. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2018, 4510.
[4] Bures et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 6741.
[5] Jolliffe, J.D. et al. Nature Chem. 2017, 558.

iCAT will work with industry partners to create an holistic approach to the training of students in biocatalysis, chemocatalysis, and their process integration. Traditional graduate training typically focuses on one aspect of catalysis and this approach can severely restrict innovation and impact. Advances in technology and fundamental reaction discovery are rendering this silo-approach obsolete, and a new training modality is needed to produce the next generation of chemists and engineers who can operate across a far broader chemical continuum. iCAT will meet this challenge with a state-of-the-art CDT, equipping the next generation of scientists and engineers with the skills needed to develop future catalytic processes and create the functional molecules of tomorrow.

The UK has one of the world's top-performing chemical industries, achieving outstanding levels of growth, exports, productivity and international investment. The UK's chemical industry is a significant provider of jobs and creator of wealth, with a turnover in excess of £50 billion and a contribution of over £15 Billion of value to the UK economy [2015 figures]. iCAT will deliver highly skilled people to lead this industry across its various sectors, achieving impact through the following actions:

1. Equip the next generation of science and engineering leaders with the interdisciplinary skills and knowledge needed to work across the bio and chemo catalytic remit and build the functional molecules we need to structure society.

2. Provide a highly skilled workforce and research base, skilled in the latest methodologies, strategies and techniques of catalysis and engineering that is crucial for the UK's Chemical Industry.

3. Build the critical mass necessary to support effective cohort-based training in a world-class research environment.

4. Develop and disseminate new catalytic technologies and processes that will be taken up by industrial and academic teams around the world.

5. Encourage Industry to promote research challenges within the CDT that are of core relevance to their business.

6. Provide cohesion in the integration of biocatalysis, engineering and chemocatalysis to create a more unified voice for strategic dialogue with industry, funders and policy makers, and more generally outreach and public engagement.

7. Draw-in and bring together Industrial partners to facilitate future Industrial collaborations.

8. Benefit Industrial scientists through interactions with the CDT (e.g. training and supervisory experience, exposure to cutting-edge synthesis and catalysis etc).

9. Link with other activities in the landscape: bringing unique expertise in catalysis to, for example, externally-funded University-led initiatives, EPRSC Grand Challenge Networks, and the National Catalysis Hub.