Patent ID: 6806087
Filing Date: 2004-10-19
Classification: B01J,C40B,G01N

Abstract:
A method for discovering optimum systems and/or reaction conditions for carrying out endo- or exothermic reactions, which comprises:a) preparing a library of catalysts for carrying out the desired reaction, b) placing a catalyst from the library in a microchannel chemical reactor of a microchannel device containing a plurality of microchannel chemical reactors, said microchannel device further having a microchannel heat exchanger which is so disposed to provide means for controlling the temperature and establishing a pre-determined temperature gradient within each microchannel chemical reactor, c) repeating step b until a desired number of catalysts have been placed in a desired number of microchannel chemical reactors, d) feeding reactants to the microchannel chemical reactors containing catalysts under conditions which cause the reactants to be converted into products, e) analyzing the products in order to collect data on the performance of each catalyst under the reaction conditions in each microchannel chemical reactor, and f) evaluating the data to identify the optimal catalyst and reaction conditions.