Preliminary operando neutron imaging of a novel heterogeneous catalytic reactor

Over the last two years and three allocations of neutron imaging beamtime, a collaboration between the University of Glasgow, ISIS and Johnson Matthey have used neutron imaging to examine hydrogen adsorption/desorption phenomena and ethene hydrogenation over supported Pd catalysts in a conventional tubular reactor. Crucially, the last run was undertaken under operando conditions. Based on these successes and the quality of new information obtained, the consortium is now able to examine a new generation of reactor – the CANS reactor - that is presently being used to produce sustainable aviation fuel from domestic waste. Beamtime is requested to use the IMAT facility to investigate how hydrogen is partitioned throughout this reactor’s catalyst bed during established turnover. Neutron radiography will be used to analyse hydrogenous species with temporal (~7 s) and spatial (~400 μm) resolution as the reagent feedsteam is modulated. The investigation is an example of state-of-the-art reaction engineering.