Major collaboration between UK chemical companies and academia
A new kind of collaboration involving three UK chemical companies and acadaemia has been set up with the aim of producing practical commercial results rather than theoretical solutions and intellectual property.
A new kind of collaboration involving three UK chemical companies and acadaemia has been set up with the aim of producing practical commercial results rather than theoretical solutions and intellectual property.
Speciality chemicals manufacturer Robinson Brothers (RBL) is working with catalyst manufacturer Johnson Matthey Catalysts, oxide support manufacturer Grace Davison and Queens University, Belfast, on a project focusing on applied catalysis, with particular emphasis on hydrogen-based reactions.
The CARMAC (Controlling the Access of Reactant Molecules to Active Centres) project, which began officially on 1 December and will run initially for a 5-year term, will receive £1.9m in funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), while the three industrial partners will con-tribute £1m in cash and £2m in kind. Its primary objective will be to draw on the latest developments in catalyst technology to restrict molecular access to active sites, realising what has previously been considered catalytically unachievable.
Johnson Matthey Catalysts will provide process engineering expertise, and its recently patented technology to zeolite coat catalyst particles is expected to feature in the programme. RBL will provide industrially relevant catalysis challenges, scale up developed solutions and assess their viability.
Also involved in the project are Professor Lynn Gladden of Cambridge University, who will use her expertise in NMR imaging techniques to gain insight into diffusion and absorption on catalysts and fluid flow in catalytic reactors; Matt Neurock of the University of Virginia, who specialises in computer modelling of solid/liquid systems; and materials synthesis expert Edman Tsang of Reading University.