Patent ID: 7118917

Claim:
A method for evaluating catalytic reactions at various process temperatures in a parallel flow chemical reactor, the method comprising simultaneously feeding reactants to a set of four or more parallel reactors of a parallel flow reaction system, comprising i) four or more reactors configured and arranged in an array with a center-to-center distance between adjacent reactors of not more than about 10 times the diameter of the reactor for reactors with circular cross-sections, or not more than about 10 times the length of a chord intersecting the center of the reactor for reactors having a non-circular cross-section, each of the four or more reactors comprising a surface defining a reaction cavity for carrying out a chemical reaction, an inlet port in fluid communication with the reaction cavity, and an outlet port in fluid communication with the reaction cavity, the four or more reactors being adapted for effecting a chemical reaction at reaction temperatures of greater than about 100° C. each of the four or more reactors comprising a catalyst effective for catalyzing a reaction of interest, the catalyst being substantially the same or different as compared between the four or more reactors, ii) a fluid distribution system for simultaneously supplying one or more reactants to the reaction cavity of each of the four or more reactors, and for discharging a reactor effluent from the outlet port of each such reaction cavity to one or more effluent sinks, and iii) a temperature control system comprising four or more individually-controllable heating elements in thermal communication with the four or more reactors, respectively, for simultaneously and individually controlling the temperature of each of the four or more reactors, the temperature control system being adapted to provide individually variable temperature differences of at least about 10° C. as compared between four or more spatially adjacent reactors, simultaneously contacting the reactants with the catalysts in each of the four or more reactors under reaction conditions effective for the reaction of interest, independently and controllably varying the temperature of the reaction zone of each of the four or more reactors using the temperature control system to be at least about 100° C. during the course of the reaction, and determining the catalytic performance for each of the four or more reactions.