Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 1994,33, 2885-2886
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SYMPOSIUM ON CATALYTIC REACTION ENGINEERING FOR ENVIRONMENTALLY BENIGN PROCESSES AND US-RUSSIA WORKSHOP ON ENVIRONMENTAL CATALYSIS
Preface M. P. DudukoviE and P. L. Mills, Symposium Co-Chairmen A. T. Bell and L. Manzer, Workshop Co-Chairmen In the next century successful manufacturing technologies will be environmentally benign. To achieve this goal, improved knowledge of both science and engineering of chemical transformations is required, since chemical reactions are both the source of pollutants and means for pollution abatement. The key to achieving specificity of chemical transformation is in the proper use of catalysis and reaction engineering. In order to stress the variety of activities needed in this broad field, the Symposium on Catalytic Reaction Engineering for Environmentally Benign Processes was held at the 207th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, San Diego, CA, March 13-18,1994. Twenty-three papers were presented in four sessions at this symposium and an additional three papers were received after the program deadline for a total of twenty-six. Nineteen of these papers representing contributions from the US, Canada, Europe, and Argentina are included in this issue of Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research and cover a wide range of topics. Dartt and Davis of Caltech reviewed the impact of advances in acid-base catalysis, catalytic oxidation, catalysis in water, and design of asymmetric catalysts on clean processing, while Boudart of Stanford warned about the breakdown of classical thermodynamic and kinetic approaches when dealing with systems in which zero concentration of some species is approached. Pollution prevention at the source via cleaner catalytic processes was the focus of six papers. Libby, Watson, and Barteau (University of Delaware) presented possibilities for eliminating multistep dehalogenation organic syntheses by a one-step catalytic route to ketenes. Yaluris, Madon, Rudd and Dumesic (University of Wisconsin) illustrated the power of fundamental kinetic modeling in predicting product distribution in cracking reactions on Y-zeolites, while such fundamental modeling was applied to desulfurization of the diesel fuel fraction by Froment, Depauw and Vanrysselberghe (University of Gent). Kinetic modeling of the reformulated gasoline on FCC zeolite catalyst is the theme pursued by Gianetto, Farag, Blasetti, and De Lasa (University of Western Ontario). The operational aspects needed to fully express the advantages of new more active zeolites in FCC reactors via a downer instead of a riser were 0888-5885/94/2633-2885$04.50/0
explored by Bolkan-Kenny, Pugsley, and Berruti (University of Calgary), while the sophistication of the control needed to curb CO emissions from the FCC unit was reviewed by Kalra and Georgakis of Lehigh University. Recycling and recovery was the underlying theme of four papers. Kim and Allen of UCLA addressed catalytic hydroprocessing as a means for recycling of chlorinated organic compounds; Pan, Minet, Benson and Tsotsis of USC considered chlorine recovery from waste hydrochloric acid; Demmink, Wubs and Beenackers (University of Groningen) considered sulfur recovery via oxidative absorption of H2S in a ferric nitriloacetic complex, while Takamoto and Petrich (Northwestern University) demonstrated the potential for char recovery from polyurethanes. Pollution abatement via end-of-the-pipe treatment was addressed by three papers. Barresi and Baldi (Politecnico di Torino) considered deep oxidation of aromatic impurities in air; Yan (Mobil) described a novel process for elimination of mercury vapor from hydrocarbon gases, and Carbera, Alfano, and Cassano (INTEC, Argentina) illustrated the use of a photocatalytic reactor for destruction of trichloroethylene in water. Two papers addressed the reverse flow process in a packed or monolith catalytic reactor. Chaouki, Guy, Sapundzhiev, Kusohorsky, and Klvana (Ecole Polytechnique de MontrBal) investigated the reverse process for catalytic combustion of dilute methane streams, and van de Beld, Borman, Derkx, van Woezik, and Westerterp (University of Twente) examined its performance in catalytic combustion of VOCs in polluted air. Two papers explored the general potential of novel reactor types in clean processing. The catalytic monolith reactor was analyzed by Villermaux and Schweich (University of Nancy) and an 02-permeable membrane reactor by Dixon, Moser, and Ma of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The US-Russia Workshop on Environmental Catalysis organized by Alexis T. Bell of University of California at Berkeley and Leo Manzer of DuPont, held in Wilmington, DE, January 13-16, 1994, complemented nicely the topics of our symposium, and we made the attempt to include these papers in the same issue of Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. Unfortu0 1994 American Chemical Society
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nately, only three could be added at this time. These three papers deal with catalyst characterization and kinetic studies including catalytic butane oxidation on VPO by Schuurman and Gleaves (Washington University), selective catalytic reduction of NO, with ammonia by Ozkan, Kumthekar, and Cai (Ohio State
M. P. Dudukovi6* Department of Chemical Engineering Washington University St. Louis, Missouri 63130-4899
University), and catalytic reduction of NO by CO over perovskites by 6ca1, Oukaci, Marcelin, and Aganval (University of Pittsburgh). We hope that our readers w i l l appreciate our efforts to focus an issue of Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. on environmental aspects of catalysis and reaction engineering.
P. L. Mills Central Research (B262) DuPont Company Wilmington, Delaware 19880-0262
