High Throughput Development of Selective Oxidation Catalysts at Sud-Chemie

The Temkin reactor concept was successfully extended to the high throughput operation mode and it could be considerably improved as compared to the original design with respect to an optimized gas flow pattern over the full size beads. This improved parallel reactor design was successfully used for the high throughput optimization of an innovative new class of physically coated VAM shell catalysts. Exploiting this novel, improved Temkin reactor concept allowed Sud-Chemie not only to optimize the multiparameter compositional space of noble metal and promoter loadings on the support spheres but for the first time to combine this “chemical optimization” with the high throughput improvement of catalytically decisive parameters as the active shell thickness, the metal distribution cross the shell, the pore diameters, and the pore volumes. This new class of physically impregnated VA catalysts, called VAM2ax, impress by its exceptionally high VA selectivity of above 94% at 50% oxygen conversion and the very high space time yields of > 1000 g VAM/l*h which easily can be reached over these shell catalysts with optimized mass and heat transport properties.