TOPCHEM · Towards Perfect Chemical Reactors:Engineering the Enhanced Control of Reaction Pathways at Molecular Level via Fundamental Concepts of Process Intensification

Molecular-level control of chemical reactions presents undoubtedly the most important scientific challenge on the way to fully sustainable processes. Factors responsible for the effectiveness of a reaction include number/frequency of molecular collisions, orientation of molecules at the moment of collisions and their energy. Current reactors offer a very limited control of the above factors. Reactions usually take place in random geometries and the energy is brought to molecules by conductive heating which is non-selective and thermodynamically inefficient.A groundbreaking solution here can only be achieved by creating a “perfect” reaction environment, in which the geometry of molecular collisions is fully controlled while energy is transferred selectively from the source to the required molecules in the required form, in the required amount, at the required moment, and at the required position. The current proposal aims at the first of its kind development of structured reactors using electric and electromagnetic fields for alignment, orientation and selective activation of targeted molecules. To engineer such “perfect” reaction environment the fundamental concepts of Process Intensification are applied. We build here on the Nobel Prize-awarded fundamental works in the area of the reaction dynamics and molecular reaction control that were not considered in chemical engineering thus far. Chemistries studied are mono- and bi-molecular reactions using CO2, CH4 and H2O, which are of paramount importance for clean fuel production and carbon dioxide management.The proposal bridges chemical physics and chemical engineering incorporating the knowledge domains of chemistry, catalysis, materials science, electronics, computer modelling and micromechanical engineering.