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The final project meeting, was organized at ECN and offered an excellent opportunity to take note of the main achievements, activities and challenges over the whole 4 years of the CARENA project. 38 CARENA members were present. The different work package leaders presented their work package’s activity; focus on an overview of the progresses and results per work package and per application. Key topics in CARENA: catalysts, membranes and membrane reactors were reported also per applications. In total there were 12 presentations and the coordinator’s speech to explain the final report plan, deadline and guidance. Dissemination and exploitation proceed well with 4 patents, 5 thesis defended, 40 papers, 26 oral presentations, 22 poster presentations and 10 innovation leaflets -up to date. The innovation leaflets have been developed to present CARENA‘s key technology offers and needs and have been presented at the workshop “Catalytic Membranes Reactors, What’s Next?”, which was organised in Petten, The Netherlands, on April 29&30, 2015. We would like to thank the organizer and CARENA partners for the very fruitful meeting.
"The drizzling weather during the 3rd annual meeting on May 26-28th, 2014 in Munich was by far not representative for the current state of the CARENA project. Beside the typical formal and status presentations, there were effective cross-work package meetings and 16 interesting highlight presentations from CARENA researchers and developers. This did not only provide a highly interesting meeting program, but also offered an excellent opportunity to take note of the impressive progress and results in the CARENA project over the past year. In year 3 of the CARENA project major advancements in catalyst, membrane development and process modelling have been reached. Although the available space is too little to highlight all developments and the excellent work done by the CARENA partners, many deserve to be mentioned. Twente University developed and patented new polyPOSS-imide hybrid membranes, which have improved mechanical and thermal stability compared with conventional polymeric membranes. The permselectivity can be tailored by tuning the POSS cage spacing using different imide linkers and by modifying the affinity groups. ECN and SINTEF shed more light on the mechanism of Pd membrane deactivation and possible measures to reduce coking. With support of CARENA partners Acktar improved the sputtered Pd membranes. In the area of membrane characterization Diamond successfully performed in-situ X-ray synchrotron measurements, while IEM developed an Acoustic Emission (AE) technique for in-situ characterization of membranes. Many catalyst developments were achieved by Johnson Matthey, who made advancements in the development of catalysts and coatings for a high number of applications, including propylene oxidation, oxidative coupling of methane and selective CO oxidation. Catalyst were developed and tested by IRCE-Lyon in a number of experimental setups developed under CARENA. The development of yolk-shell catalysts for selective oxidation needs to be mentioned in that respect. University of Salerno made good progress on how to improve the performance of steam reforming and propane dehydrogenation catalyst. The understanding of catalytic membrane reactors and their implementation in chemical processes advanced by modelling work. CNRS-IRC in Lyon developed a micro-kinetic model for Oxygen Transfer Membranes (OTM). PDC made significant progress with the development of conceptual design methodology of catalytic membrane reactors. Process models were developed for the steam methane reforming, MTM and OCM process, and propane to acrylic acid. Of course, R&D does not proceed smoothly in every aspect. Bottlenecks were encountered, for which alternative or backup solutions had to be defined. Main driver for the last CARENA year is to integrate all the valuable results in real catalytic membrane reactors. It is like the Strategic Advisory Board stressed: CARENA will finally be judged on the Catalystic Membrane Reactor development it achieved! The outlook is good. Dissemination and exploitation proceed well with 19 papers, 22 oral presentations and 20 poster presentations. One patent has been filed and quite a number of applications are in preparation. Collaboration between partners goes smoothly and there are no big issues in project management to report. The last year faces many technical challenges, but it promises to become a very productive final year for the CARENA project."Hank Vleeming
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The annual project meeting, organized at the University of Salerno offered an excellent opportunity to take note of the big achievements so far. Beside the presentations of the work package leaders, who gave an overview of the progress and results per work package, there were three highlight presentations focusing on the three key topics in CARENA: catalysts, membranes and membrane reactors. The first highlight presentation was given by Céline Daniel, who showed the results of catalyst screening, CSTR and characterization tests performed at IRCE-Lyon of over 50 dimethyl carbonate (DMC) catalysts prepared by Johnson Matthey. Professor Caro of Leibniz University of Hannover presented innovative membranes being developed in WP4: Hydrogen and oxygen transport membranes, which are applied in WP2, and membranes for separation of water/steam for WP3. Finally, Maria Saric of ECN presented the conclusions of the system studies for the large-scale methanol production as well as the design, construction and test results of the integrated pilot catalytic membrane reactor at ECN with a total membrane area of 1 m2.
Highly appreciated by the 45 participants of the annual meeting were the 10-minute presentations by the PhDs and post-docs working in CARENA. Each of them presented very interesting results of high scientific value and importance to the progress in the project. Their work not only led to a large number of papers and (poster) presentations, which exceeds the expectations, but also to several initiatives by partners to evaluate and discuss IPR issues.
Another important aspect of the annual meeting was paving the way for the two remaining years of the project. This was for example done in separate WP meetings organized on the day before and after the meeting, but also by discussing important development topics in cross work package meetings. WP1, 2 and 4 discussed common issues and alignment of palladium membrane development and in a parallel meeting the developments in WP3 were coordinated with the tasks in the membrane, catalyst and modeling toolbox work packages 4, 5 and 6. It was very positive to see the active participation of partners in these meetings, also in discussions that went beyond their own tasks. This indicates that the partners effectively work together, which is one of the key prerequisites for a successful project. The results up to now are very promising. Together with the good spirit and collaboration between work packages and partners, we are confident that we are well prepared to deal with the scientific and technical challenges in the second half of the CARENA project.
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The meeting was organized by IRCELyon & Arkema.
Following an introduction given by the Coordinator, Arend de Groot, a special welcome was given to Prof. Koos Van Staden the Project Technical Advisor.
Each PdD/Postdoc researcher in CARENA presented the essence and the (first) results of their research work as an appetizer to the poster presentation. It was an excellent opportunity for them to introduce themselves to the consortium and to start practicing their oral skills by presenting their research projects.
We would like to thank the organizers and participants for the very successful meeting.
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The Kick-off meeting was kindly hosted by ECN and PDC.
Helge Wessel, the EC Scientific Officer, stated that the EC will follow CARENA with great interest and wished all the participants success in the project. Arend de Groot, the project’s coordinator, presented the overall project programme, comparing it to a real expedition jointly undertaken by the CARENA partners.
Objectives, role of team members, deliverables, and dissemination activities were presented, as well as each work package work plan. An overview was given of the PhD students and post-doctoral researchers involved in CARENA. Lastly, the process for managing risks and issues was covered.
Everything is thus all set for the CARENA project to unfold nicely!
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