The goal of the course is to provide the skills and the knowledge for the comprehension and the quali-quantitative analysis of catalytic processes, including the methodologies involved in the preparation and characterization of catalytic materials.

Lectures, laboratory experiences and numerical exercises will allow students to:

• dentify all the step in the preparation method of a catalytic materials, related to specific cheractistics in the final product
• Choose the best characterization technique to measure a specific property
• Perform catalytic tests and kinetic analysis
• Describe transport phenomena relevant to heterogeneous catalysis
• Select the appropriate catalytic reactors and model it with ideal and real models
• Understand the behavior of industrial catalytic reactors
• Design industrial catalytic reactors
• Apply the concept learned to understand the design criteria of industrial catalytic processes
• Perform catalytic tests and kinetic analysis
• Describe transport phenomena relevant to heterogeneous catalysis
• Select the appropriate catalytic reactors and model it with ideal and real models
• Understand the behavior of industrial catalytic reactors
• Design industrial catalytic reactors
• Apply the concept learned to understand the design criteria of industrial catalytic processes

The course consists of lectures, numerical exercises, laboratory activity and visits to research laboratories.

• Industrial catalysis: introduction to historical data on industrial catalytic processes, relevance of today's industrial catalysis and catalyst market, stages involved in the development of a catalytic process, perspectives and future developments of catalysis.
• General characteristics of heterogeneous catalysts: role of a catalyst in a chemical reaction, properties of industrial catalysts, homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, components of heterogeneous catalysts, crystal structures of heterogeneous catalysts.
• Catalyst preparation: general overview of the preparation method for bulk catalysts and supports. Theory and practice of coprecipitaion, impregnation, sol-gel methods, and of other preparation methods. Unit operation for the preparation of heterogeneous catalysts.
• Chemico-physical characterization of catalysts: General aspects on the characterization of bulk and supported catalysts. Morphological characterization: specific surface area and pore distribution. Adsorption techniques for the catalyst characterization: physical and chemical adsorption, models for adsorption isotherms, experimental techniques for the adsorption study. Spectroscopic and thermal techniques for the catalyst characterization: FTIR, Laser-Raman, UV-Vis, TG-DTA, DSC, XRD, EPR, SEM, TEM, ecc.. Chemical characterization: TPD, TPO, TPR, TPSR, ecc..
• Kinetics of catalytic reactions: relevance of kinetic investigations in catalytic reactions. "Power law" kinetic equations, Langmuir - Hinshelwood formal models. Other kinetic models: Rideal, Redox. Limits of classical kinetic treatments. Microkinetic models.
• Reaction and diffusion in heterogeneous catalysis: transport phenomena in heterogeneous catalysis, role of transport phenomena on the rate of a reaction, falsification of kinetics. Theoretical and experimental criteria to verify the presence of diffusional limitations.
• Laboratory reactor: Reactors and equipment for measurement of catalytic activity and for kinetic analysis. Procurement of kinetic data from catalytic activity data.
• Industrial reactors: types and characteristics of industrial catalytic reactors.
• Catalyst deactivation: chemical and kinetic aspects of catalyst deactivation: poisoning, coking, sintering, masking. techniques to prevent deactivation. Regeneration of catalysts.
• Examples of industrial catalytic processes: examples of heterogeneous catalytic processes of organic and inorganic industry and for environmental protection will be considered.

No pre-requisites are required

In the final oral exam, the student will be asked to:

• demonstrate that he has acquired a correct approach to the catalyst preparation methods
• apply methods and tools to correctly characterize the catalytic materials
• explain how to select the proper lab-scale reactor for catalytic tests and kinetic measurements
• explain how to design industrial reactors accounting for both intrinsic kinetics and transport phenomena
• discuss the causes of catalysts deactivation
• explain how to develop industrial catalytic processes
• demonstrate his level of comprehension and his skills in quali-quantitative analysis of catalytic processes used in the industrial chemistry, environmental protection, energy-sector and other