Back-Pressure Regulation for Catalyst Research

Catalysts are substances that allow chemical reactions to proceed at lower temperature. Even though, many checmical reactions that involve catalyst still occure under extremen conditions. For example, Fischer-Tropsch reactions, where a gaseous mixture of carbon monixide and hydrogen in converted into (liquid) hydrocarbons at high temperature and pressure over a solid catalyst.

In catalyctic research, high temperatures and pressures are needed to prevent condensation of the chemical compounds, in order to analyse the chemical composition of the exhaust coming from a reactor. To find out under which process conditions  a catalyst will perform optimally for a specific chemical reaction, a large pressure range has to be investigated. To this end, a Bronkhorst pressure controller is used to pressurize an Equilibar dome-load back pressure regulator.

Flow Scheme