Mapping mass transfer, chemical composition and temperature within working catalytic systems

The design and optimisation of catalytic processes requires understanding of the chemical and physical phenomena occurring at a range of length and time scales. The observed process parameters at the reactor-scale (such as productivity, selectivity and yield) are heavily governed by the interplay between reaction and diffusion at the pellet-scale. Clearly, such interactions are non-trivial. True catalyst optimisation can only be achieved when the processes occurring in the pores of catalyst pellets are thoroughly understood. Nuclear magnetic resonance techniques have been developed to allow inherently quantitative and non-invasive insight in to the coupled mass transfer and conversion occurring at the pellet-level. The advance the proposed PhD seeks to make in the context of magnetic resonance imaging is to improve experimental techniques to capture chemical shift and diffusivity at sub-100um isotropic resolution (i.e. in all three spatial dimensions). Advanced data acquisition, compressed sensing and image reconstruction techniques will be developed to reduce image acquisition time, allowing time-varying processes to be more accurately measured. This will enable chemical reaction engineers to more thoroughly understand the interaction of chemical conversion, mass transport and heat transfer. 3D pellet-scale models will be constructed and validated by high-resolution experimental data, guiding future catalyst design and manufacture.