Core implementation tasks include (i) the transfer of catalytic reactions from laboratory scale to pilot or technical scale and (ii) the transfer of methods from neighboring disciplines and information technology to catalysis, which have the potential to accelerate the transfer from research to technical application.
Construction of the LIKAT Transfer Technology Center began in the fall of 2019. Since SMEs and non-chemistry-specifi c user industries usually do not have facilities for transferring innovative laboratory results to pilot scale, it makes sense to keep the know-how for piloting available at LIKAT to support these users in transferring.
To realize this vision, research groups from different research departments work together. For industry, Topic 03 is a competent partner for the transfer of new developments in catalysis from basic research to application. In both heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis, several projects with industry target reaction engineering or upscaling aspects. To support these activities, Topic 03 operates and (partly) develops experimental facilities of different scale (from microreactor to miniplant scale) that provide high quality data.
To guarantee controlled synthesis of catalysts, it is important to monitor all parts of the synthesis, such as dosing of solutions or precipitants, mixing, control of pH, etc. This involves the combination of different reactor techniques and analytical methods. A more detailed knowledge of the role of the different parameters on the synthesis also minimizes the risk of failure when upscaling a catalyst synthesis. Currently, various modern and sustainable catalytic processes for fi ne and bulk chemistry are being developed in Topic 03. This includes, among other
things, studies on catalyst activation and deactivation as well as start-up and shut-down behavior.
Scale-up of catalyst synthesis is also becoming increasingly important. In the future, 'Data Science' within NFDI4Cat will add another focus on research data management.