Operando Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) studies of a Trickle-bed Reactor using D-T2 Correlations

Catalytic conversions in fine-chemical and pharmaceutical production are increasingly performed in trickle-bed rectors. Optimisation of these processes is usually based on end of pipe measurement made at specific residence times. This process is both time-consuming and the data sometimes challenging to interpret. In the present work, operando nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques both at the scale of the whole bed (global) and spatially-resolved within the bed (local) are used to gain new insights to the catalytic conversion process under reaction conditions. Spatially resolved spectroscopic and diffusion-T2-relaxation (D-T2) methods interrogate local differences in chemical conversion and selectivity, and mass transport (molecular self-diffusion) respectively, thereby providing valuable information for process simulation models. This capability is demonstrated using the continuous flow three phase (gas-liquid-solid) hydrogenation of benzonitrile over a fixed bed of 0.5 wt.% Pd/Al2O3 catalyst pellets yielding toluene and benzylamine. Global 1H spectroscopic and D-T2 were used to monitor chemical conversion and the approach to steady state; these were subsequently followed by spatially resolved 1H spectra and spatially resolved D-T2 correlations to examine the local differences in axial conversion and selectivity of the catalyst bed packing. At steady-state a global conversion of 63% was achieved with 65% and 25% selectivity to benzylamine and toluene respectively. Heterogeneities in the local (axial) conversion and selectivity differed by 31% along the total catalyst bed length. These techniques should be applicable to many three-phase heterogeneous catalytic systems provided that the T2 relaxation time of the reactants and products is not prohibitively small.