Materialsynthese und Scale-up

Group mission

The Material Synthesis and Scale-up group at IKFT was founded in 2022. Its mission is to bridge the gap between fundamental and applied catalytic technologies and the development of new catalyst materials for the global energy transition. The focus of our work is the sustainable utilization of CO₂ and use of renewable electricity in catalytic processes for the production of energy carriers, intermediates, or chemicals. This includes the development of scalable material preparation and transfer to technical application in catalytic systems.

Group objective

The research group focuses on catalyst development and catalytic technologies for the synthesis of chemical energy carriers in the framework of the global energy and feedstock transition. Catalysis engineering and scalable material syntheses represent major core elements of the research scope. During material synthesis, various scales are covered ranging from the synthesis of nanoparticles for model catalysts to shaped catalyst bodies to bridge academic research and technical application. After material synthesis, the morphology, surface characteristics and bulk properties of catalysts are analysed by a range of characterisation techniques (microscopy, spectroscopy, diffraction, sorption, thermogravimetry, etc.) to understand the relationship between structure-activity as well as selectivity and stability during the catalytic applications.

The research scope is focused on sustainable catalysis and engineering for a successful energy transition with topics, such as:

Seminal valorisation of carbon dioxide
Chemical hydrogen storage using liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs)
Induction heating of catalytic reactors
Catalyst shaping via tableting
Synthesis gas fermentation
Ammonia reforming

Research topics and projects

Novel catalyst materials for the activation of CO₂

For the valorisation of CO₂, we are developing new transition metal-based catalyst materials to study fundamental structure-activity, structure-selectivity and structure-stability relationship. Aside from using multi-component systems, we also focus on modification of the support using carbon nitride materials or by introducing dedicated bi-functionality. The application ranges from CO₂ methanation, the reverse water-gas shift reaction to the direct synthesis of olefins. Further, catalysts from related projects are studied to gain insight on structural dependencies and working principles via advanced characterisation techniques. Linking parameters from catalyst synthesis to catalyst properties and performance is a primary objective while (modified) supports are often decorated with separately synthesised, well-defined nanoparticles to facilitate comparison with benchmark and other supports.

Related research projects: MTET, CARE-O-SENE

Testing unit comprising a fixed-bed reactor for catalytic hydrogenation of CO₂ under elevated temperature and pressure.

Liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) technology

The LOHC technology avoids transportation and storage of highly flammable molecular hydrogen by the formation of chemical bonds between hydrogen and carrier molecules. LOHCs are typically non-flammable, have a low toxicity, a wide liquid range as well as a high storage density for hydrogen. Further, this chemical storage of hydrogen may even employ existing infrastructure for liquid fuels (diesel, gasoline) enabling safe and facile global supply chains. We focus on benzyltoluene (H0-BT), which can be reversibly hydrogenated to perhydro benzyltoluene (H12-BT) and dehydrogenated to H0-BT in catalytic processes enabling chemical hydrogen storage. However, the technical release of hydrogen requires rather high reaction temperatures due to the strongly endothermic nature of the dehydrogenation reaction and must accommodate large volumes of released hydrogen. Here, we develop catalytic technologies for the dehydrogenation, which comprises the development and up-scaling of novel catalysts and their application in various reactor concepts.

Related research projects: MTET, Subcontract FZJ, InnoPool - AutoMAT

Circular use of liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) for storage and global transportation of hydrogen; ©Moritz Wolf

Scalable syntheses and shaping of catalysts

Large quantities of catalytic materials are required for the technical application of catalysts. We focus on scalable syntheses to facilitate transfer of developed research catalysts into application. The synthesis of metal (Ce, Co, Cu, Fe, In, Ni) oxide, hydroxide and oxyhydroxide nanoparticles via surfactant-free approaches presently yields several grams of well-defined nanoparticles for use in model systems and fundamental studies. Classical catalyst preparation techniques are scaled to the kilogram range to provide sufficient quantities to collaborators or demonstration units. Further, prepared catalyst materials are typically powders in the micrometre range, which demands conversion into stable three-dimensional geometries in the millimetre range by means of shaping processes. During shaping, application-relevant properties can be varied and additional components, such as lubricants or binders, are required for the production or stability of the shaped bodies. Here, we focus on tableting of catalyst materials while studying the role of compaction parameters on physico-chemical and catalytic properties.

Related research projects: MTET, Subcontract FZJ, CDC

Samples of catalyst materials along the process chain from preparation to shaping into tablets.

Induction heating of catalytic reactors

We explore induction heating as highly dynamic and electrified heating concept for catalytic reactors, which may enable new techniques for fundamental operando studies and technical application alike. The aim is to prepare modified catalyst beds to facilitate induction heating by introducing a so-called susceptor material, which provides suitable magnetic properties for induction heating. Ideally, the susceptor is identical to the active phase or is incorporated into the catalytic material to allow for rapid heating in close vicinity to the active phase. Similar effects can be realized by bringing susceptor materials in direct contact with the catalyst, which is realised via a range of scale-bridging approaches from lab-based reactor dimensions to the nanometre scale. The combination of suitable catalyst concepts for induction heating and reactors with an advanced temperature control directly .

Related research project: CRC 1441

Synthesis gas fermentation

Anaerobic fermentation offers the possibility of using CO₂ as a carbon source for chemicals and fuels, but also for the production of future food and animal feed. Synthesis gas fermentation is an anaerobic fermentation process in which gas mixtures of hydrogen, carbon dioxide (CO₂) and carbon monoxide (CO) are converted into alcohols and organic acids by acetogenic microorganisms, such as Clostridium ljungdahlii. Compared to the use of classic thermocatalytic processes, the microbial conversion of synthesis gas has a high potential for increasing efficiency and simplifying handling. Similar to conventional processes, synthesis gas fermentation can also be influenced by adjusting process parameters. We study the fermentation of synthesis gas in the “SANDRA” laboratory plant, which enables continuous long-term experiments under elevated pressure. The aim of this work is to optimize the formed products by varying the gas components and to develop a model of the reactor system for predicting steady states and for process control.

Related research project: NSERC-DFG SUSTAIN: Biological and electrochemical process design for biocatalytic CO2 conversion

Schematic depiction of synthesis gas fermentation with SANDRA

Cooperation

Industrial partners

Clariant AG
hte GmbH - the high throughput experimentation company
Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies GmbH, Germany
INERATEC GmbH, Germany
omegadot software & consulting GmbH
Sasol Germany GmbH, Germany
Sasol Limited, South Africa

Academic partners

Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Germany
Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH (FZJ), Germany
- Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy (HI ERN)
- Institute for Sustainable and Infrastructure Compatible Hydrogen Economy (INW)
Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems (IKTS), Germany
Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (HZB), Germany
Imperial College London (ICL), Great Britain
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
- Engler-Bunte-Institut (EBI)
- Institute for Applied Materials – Electrochemical Technologies / Institut für Angewandte Materialien – Elektrochemische Technologien (IAM-ET)
- Institute for Chemical Technology and Polymer Chemistry Institut für Technische Chemie und Polymerchemie (ITCP)
- Institute for Inorganic Chemistry / Institut für Anorganische Chemie (AOC)
- Institute for Micro Process Engineering / Institut für Mikroverfahrenstechnik (IMVT)
- Institute for Technical Chemistry / Institut für Technische Chemie (ITC)
- Institute of Chemical Process Engineering / Institut für Chemische Verfahrenstechnik (CVT)
- Institute of Nanotechnology / Institut für Nanotechnologie (INT)
- Institute of Thermal Process Engineering / Institut für Thermische Verfahrenstechnik (TVT)
- Laboratory for Electron Microscopy / Laboratorium für Elektronenmikroskopie (LEM)
MAX IV Laboratory, Sweden
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion (MPI cec)
University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa
University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Germany
University of Padova, Italy
Vienna University of Technology, Austria

Equipment und methods

A broad range of catalyst materials ranging from nanoparticles to supported or bulk catalysts and shaped catalyst bodies can be provided for academic and contract research.

Further, we pool expertise in material characterization and maintain access to a range of techniques.

For further information, please get in touch: moritz.wolf∂kit.edu.