Advanced Granulation for Industrial Layered Engineered (AGILE) Catalyst


AGILE (Advanced Granulation for Industrial Layered Engineered Catalysts) develops shaping routes that turn catalyst powders into technical particles for fluidized and circulating reactors. Granulation and spray-fluidized-bed coating are used to build layered particles with controlled composition, porosity, and mechanical strength [201, 164, 188].

  • Particle growth and aggregation kinetics in spray-fluidized beds [204]
  • Placement of the active phase (zeolite, co-supports) inside the particle [188, 47]
  • Effect of shaping on intrinsic kinetics and thermal resistance [190, 121, 113] [patent 16, P1]
  • Scale-up rules for shaping processes

Related People

Hui (Steven) Rong

Related Publications

Dispersing zeolite in technical catalyst particles using a top spray fluidized bed reactor for methanol to hydrocarbons reaction

by Alkadhem, Mohamed, Hoffmann, Fan, Musteata, Ogg, Ruiz-Martinez, Tsotsas, Castaño
Chem. Eng. J. Year: 2025 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2025.161126

Abstract

This work investigates catalyst shaping in top spray fluidized beds and its impact on properties at different levels: particle growth stages, zeolite dispersion within the catalyst particles, and their combined effects on active site accessibility and activity in methanol to hydrocarbons (MTH) reaction. We examine the influence of process parameters such as viscosity, atomization, fluidization, temperature, slurry flow, and initial bed mass on particle size distribution and morphology. Dimensionless number analysis clarifies the dominant growth stage for a given set of process parameters. We elaborate more on optimizing the conditions that maximize zeolite, linked to smaller zeolite size, faster diffusion of probes such as 2, 2-dimethylbutane, and slightly higher activity (without violating the reaction mechanism). By optimizing the dispersion of zeolite through catalyst shaping conditions, we achieved 100 % zeolite utilization, compared to 70 % under non-optimized conditions. This improvement would have a significant impact on scaling this shaping technology.

Keywords

HCE O2H