The development of a high throughput reactor for the catalytic screening of three phase reactions

The design and utilisation of a reactor for the optimisation of multiple heterogeneous catalytic reactions in liquid phase is described. With the ability to screen up to 25 samples simultaneously at a maximum pressure of 50 bar, the reactor is one of the first to be designed specifically for what is termed stage II, the optimisation phase, of catalytic high throughput experimentation (HTE). Experiments demonstrating the reliability and reproducibility of the reactor are described, including the use of the reactor to study the catalytic hydrogenation of crotonaldehyde (CrAld) over bimetallic samples based on a commercial 5 wt.% Pt on activated carbon catalyst. Modification of the mono-metallic Pt sample by the impregnation of aqueous metal salts and various pre-treatments, resulted in 140 bimetallic catalysts that were used in the hydrogenation study. The changes observed in both selectivity and reactivity of the modified catalysts are described and show, by way of example, how the speed of catalyst screening can be increased by at least an order of magnitude.