Multiscale process intensification for catalytic partial oxidation of methane: From nanostructured catalysts to integrated reactor concepts

Process intensification (PI) is an exciting area of chemical and process engineering with increasing importance in the design and development of cleaner, more efficient, and more sustainable processes. The present contribution reviews work from the author's laboratory on catalytic partial oxidation of methane (CPOM) as example for a multiscale approach to process intensification. It is shown that regenerative heat-integration via flow reversal is an efficient way to overcome thermodynamic limitations present at autothermal reactor operation, and that “nano-engineered” catalysts can complement and enable these reactor concepts by combining high activity with exceptional catalyst stability. Most significantly, the combination of heat-integration with nanostructured catalysts yields synergies which are characteristic for multiscale process intensification, resulting in the present case in strongly increased syngas yields of 80% in a simple, air-fed autothermal CPOM process.