Process Optimisation SPIRE Projects' Conference Brussels, 20 April 2016

Scientific/Technical goals of the supported area Produce efficient and modular reactors with adapted shape to the reaction by producing novel reactor and catalyst shapes. Test the economic feasibility of using additive manufacturing in three different cases and at three different scales, corresponding to fine, specialty and bulk chemicals. Make a demonstrator (TRL 5) to test the concept for fine chemicals production. Optimization of resources: by increasing energy recovery and by reducing the consumption of metals in complex reactor building. At full scale in bulk chemicals production, the energy recovered should be enough to lighten-up a small town.

Current and Expected technological impacts of the supported area Efficient: increase performance of reactors with reactions that are limited by heat, mass and/or momentum transfer. Adaptable: using additive manufacturing is possible to adapt the reactor and catalyst to optimize the reaction. Modular: the pieces produced by additive manufacturing are modular by default. Complexity should also cost less than using traditional manufacturing. Optimized: the reactor optimization will be at the design level allowing higher efficiency levels.

Current and Expected Environmental impacts of the supported area Compact: reduce the materials employed in reactor manufacturing. Additive manufacturing allows also reduction of the raw material consumption. Less catalysts: with more efficient operations it is expected to reduce the catalyst consumption with environmental and cost advantages. Energy-efficient: by obtaining a more compact design we target to recover 15% more energy in energy intensive bulk chemicals production.

Current and Expected Economic/social impacts of the supported area Higher performance: by controlling the reaction conditions we aim to increase the catalyst life and reduce the separation energy. Faster: reduce lead times in production of fine chemicals, leading to important cost reductions. Cheaper: test economic viability of novel reactors at different scales. Main advantage is substantial reduction of raw material consumption and of manufacturing steps. High-skilled jobs: by combining advanced additive manufacturing to chemical industry we aim to keep the European leadership in production of chemicals in Europe.

Technical cross-cutting issues What SPIRE-relevant technical cross-cutting issues are addressed in your project that would increase the overall impact? The methodology used for design and optimization of reactors is common to the chemical industry, irrespective of its size.

Non-technical cross-cutting issues What SPIRE-relevant non-technical cross-cutting issues are addressed in your project that would increase the overall impact? One main target is to make a business model of utilization of additive manufacturing in the chemical industry and mostly for this reason we have selected cases targeting different production scales. We also aim to introduce additive manufacturing in chemical engineering courses. We will have a contest for the best 3D design & manufactured European reactor. The contest will be launched in 2016.

Summary / way forward PRINTCR3DIT will produce improved modular and adaptable reactors, specially targeted to reactions limited by mass, energy or momentum transfer. We expect to evaluate impacts in cost and environmental performance of such reactors and catalysts for three different applications.