SPP 1570:  Porous Media with Defined Porous Structure in Chemical Engineering - Modelling, Applications, Synthesis

• Subject Area: Thermal Engineering/Process Engineering ; Chemistry ; Materials Science and Engineering
• Term: from 2011 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 172559843

Porous media are ubiquitous in chemical engineering, for example, as catalyst supports, adsorbents, insulation material, membranes or chromatographic columns. From simulations it is well-known that properties of materials may be improved considerably by optimisation with respect to given criteria. Not until the last few years, new experimental methods allowed for the targeted synthesis of defined pore structures. Cooperation of chemical engineers and chemists will utilise the new possibilities in chemical engineering.
The optimal porous media for the respective applications shall be developed in close cooperation with chemists who work on the particular problems. In detail the following aims shall be achieved: (1) Pore models should be developed, which give insights into processes inside the pores. These models could be network models, inverse pore structures from x-ray data (for example, for amorphous media), or well-defined crystalline structures based on crystallographic data. For particular cases effective pore models may be employed.
(2) Transport phenomena inside the pores may be described by suitable multicomponent pore models (for example, Stefan-Maxwell equations), heat conductivity equations or molecular approaches (Monte Carlo, Molecular Dynamics, density functional theory (DFT)). Solutions resultant from these simulations are used for the optimisation calculations.
(3) The pore structures should be optimised with respect to particular applications, applying relevant optimisation criteria. This will be done by means of modern approaches of convex optimisation, genetic algorithms, parallel tempering etc.
(4) The optimal pore structures shall be synthesised in close cooperation with chemists.
The synthesised porous media will be applied for the respective chemical processes.
(5) New high-resolution imaging processes (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) are to be employed making the liquid distribution inside pores visible, in particular for drying processes and three-phase reactors.
(6) The synthesised porous media are then to be used for the respective process technology applications, where they should demonstrate their improved properties in experiments. Some applications will only be made economically feasible by new synthesis procedures.(7) As overall goal a rational design of pore structures is striven for. Detailed insight into the molecular processes inside the pores, followed by targeted synthesis of optimal pore structures, according to given criteria, should be achieved.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• International Connection: Austria, Russia, Switzerland

Projects

• Ab initio simulation of isotherms for gas mixtures in metal-organic frameworks (Applicant Sauer, Joachim )
• Adsorbenssynthese und Mehrskalenmodellierung von CO2-Einfang/Adsorbent Synthesis and Multi-scale Modeling of Carbon Capture (Applicants Keil, Frerich ;  Smit, Berend )
• Adsorptive precipitation of polar organic substances in biopolymer aerogels from ternary supercritical fluid mixtures (Applicant Smirnova, Irina )
• Aligned Carbon Nanotubes as Porous Materials for Selective Gas Adsorption and Desorption (Applicants Müller-Plathe, Florian ;  Schneider, Jörg J. )
• Bifunctional hierarchically-structured porous layered systems for efficient one-step conversion of synthesis gas to fuels in microstructured reactors (Applicants Dittmeyer, Roland ;  Schwieger, Wilhelm )
• Coordination Funds (Applicant Keil, Frerich )
• Development of Micro/mesoporous spherical adsorbents for Adsorption of various volatile anesthetics (Applicants Bathen, Dieter ;  Enke, Dirk ;  Fröba, Michael )
• Improvement of diffusive mass transport in hierachically structured Fischer-Tropsch catalysts (Applicants Brenner, Gunther ;  Turek, Thomas ;  Weber, Alfred )
• Influence of the pore structure on the membrane based separation of components from natural gas and accompanying gas (Applicants Paschek, Dietmar ;  Wohlrab, Sebastian )
• Nanoporöse Hohlkugeln zur Herstellung enantiomerenreiner Wirkstoffe und deren direkte Überführung in funktionsoptimierte Darreichungsformen (Applicants Feldmann, Claus ;  Johannsen, Monika ;  Staudt, Reiner ;  Türk, Michael )
• New nanoporous materials with optimized pore structure in the olefin/paraffin separation by adsorption: Experimental and model-based Evaluation (Applicants Hartmann, Martin ;  Kaspereit, Malte )
• Quantitative 3D-analysis of real pore structures using advanced electron tomography techniques (Applicant Spiecker, Erdmann )
• Separation of mixtures of chiral volatile anestethics via modified porous glasses (Applicant Seidel-Morgenstern, Andreas )
• Surface interaction and dynamics of molecular spin-probes as guests in tailor-made organosilica, porous hosts for applications in chromatography. (Applicant Polarz, Sebastian )
• Synthesis of highly porous monolithic materials with well-defined multimodal pore radii distribution (Applicant Hüsing, Nicola )
• Towards a novel approach to capture CO2 in hierarchically organized chemically functionalized materials (Applicant Lercher, Johannes A. )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Frerich Keil