Patent ID: 8460606

Claim:
An automatic reactor system for catalytic microactivity studies, said automatic reactor system comprising: a hotbox; a furnace disposed inside said hotbox; a reactor positioned inside said furnace disposed inside said hotbox and having a catalyst disposed therein; a plurality of mass flow controllers, said plurality of mass flow controllers configured to supply a known controlled stream of gases to said reactor; an HPLC pump configured to supply liquid reactants from a container, said hot box comprising a preheater for the gases and a preheater-evaporator for the liquid reactants; a valve disposed inside said hot box, and being configured to select a process path for the liquid reactants and the gases, thereby selecting whether or not the liquid reactants and the gases pass through said reactor, and being a six-way valve; and a separation system disposed outside said hotbox, and being configured to perform cold condensation under pressure and to separate the liquid products and the gas products by a level control system, said level control system configured to control the level in a separator recipient with an accumulated volume of 0.1-0.5 cm 3 ; said separation system having a minimum dead volume, and including a high resolution capacitive level sensor with a precision of ±0.1 cm 3 and a pressure control system; said separation system configured to permit continuous separation of the liquid products and the gas products and evacuation thereof from said separation system by different outlets; said level control system being configured to control a servo-positioned microregulation valve in a liquids output line, and said pressure control system being configured to control a servo-positioned microregulation valve inside said hot box in a gases output line and to control the reactor pressure; and said separation system being automated and computerized, having local control and remote control on-line, based on digital communications with a distributed control structure, a safety system being integrated into a microprocessor independent of said separation system.