The design of novel laboratory flow reactors has the potential to reduce chemical waste, minimize the building space and energy requirements, expedite information, and yield more accurate predictive models. This so called “process intensification” has merit to revolutionize the science and the engineering of industrial-scale processes. The design of microreactors with in-situ characterization techniques can help understand the physical and chemical rate processes in energy and fuels. This talk in honor of Prof. Anne Gaffney will summarize our recent contributions related to energy and fuels. The direct characterization of nanomaterials within porous media is an aspirational goal in science and engineering. In-situ mapping of a packed-bed microreactor can provide useful insight on asphaltenes, which are aromatic macromolecules commonly found hydrocarbon production fluids in the near-wellbore region. The nanosheet size distribution and 2D occupancy of asphaltenes within a packed-bed microreactor are readily available by in situ Raman spectroscopy. Directly probing asphaltenes in this way can yield insight on their self-assembly or adsorb onto porous media surfaces via p-p stacking, hydrogen bonding, acid-base interactions, and metal coordination. Furthermore, natural gas, an important topic in conventional energy production, can form crystalline hydrates in the presence of water at elevated pressures and sub-cooled temperatures. The design of high-pressure, sub-cooled microsystems can reveal the contributions of heat and mass transport limitations on the crystallization/dissociation of methane hydrates. Our investigation clarifies the root cause of the “memory effect” of methane hydrates that has been previously reported. The seminar will conclude with a brief discussion of Prof. Gaffney’s contributions and how they relate to emerging trends in the field of catalysis and reaction engineering.

Multiphase microreactors with in-situ spectroscopy as a gateway to process intensification in energy and fuels

2019 Spring National Meeting

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