First Commercial Heterogeneous Catalyst Developed Using High Throughput Discovery Techniques
| Partnering
Organizations: |
UOP,
LLC
Des Plaines, IL |
and |
NovoDynamics,
Inc.
Ann Arbor MI |
|
| Project
Duration and Cost: |
- 1999-2004
- ATP funding
amount: $14.6M
- UOP, LLC cost-share
amount: $15.2M
|
| Project
Brief: |
99-01-6027 |
| Status
Report of the Completed Project: |
None |
The
Challenge
Without
catalysts, a chemical manufacturing process is often either too
expensive or simply not possible at all. Catalysts are used in
industries as diverse as petroleum, chemicals, pharmaceuticals,
and affect virtually every aspect of the business supply chain,
from R&D to manufacturing. Typical catalysts are complex
substances and may be made from expensive materials. Discovering
and developing new catalysts is a slow and inefficient process
with long cycle times. The application of combinatorial,
or high-throughput experimental methods offers the prospect
of finding new catalysts faster and more effectively. However,
the use of combinatorial techniques in catalyst discovery
is hampered by the complexity (a large number of variables
can influence catalytic activity) and poorly developed methods
and tools. NIST's Advanced
Technology Program (ATP) provided cost-shared funding for
a collaborative research project between NovoDynamics Inc,
an informatics company, and UOP LLC, a leader and manufacturer
of industrial catalytic technology. The goal of the joint
venture was to develop novel combinatorial methods and tools
to speed the discovery of catalysts, and then demonstrate
the use of the approach by its application to catalytic reforming
for the production of high-octane, low-sulfur gasoline. |
Technical
and Economic Impacts
The
technical accomplishments of the project were highly successful:
- UOP
and NovoDynamics were able to develop new high-throughput
methods to synthesize and test complex catalyst compositions
in a miniaturized, massively parallel fashion.
- The collaboration was able to develop an advanced informatics
tool for data management, analysis, mining, and predictive
modeling.
The new capability
developed by this project led to commercialization of
the world’s
first catalyst discovered by combinatorial chemistry
techniques. Previously unsuccessful efforts had lasted
three years and were only able to evaluate 250 compositions.
The new paraffin isomerization catalyst PI-242, was identified
in just five weeks time by preparing and evaluating over
500 catalyst compositions with the new technique. Then,
just 20 months after discovery, PI-242 was commercialized—one
of the fastest development times ever for this industry.
The broad-based, national economic impact of this new technology
has also been great. For example, the new catalyst allows oil
refiners to increase production of low sulfur, high-octane gasoline
without additional capital investment in new production capacity.
Because this cost can be in the order of millions of dollars,
this catalyst represents a significant reduction in production
costs.
In
addition, the technology has spilled over to other
areas. The ATP project helped accelerate UOP’s
decision to form a new, wholly-owned subsidiary,
Torial Technologies LLC, which offers combinatorial
chemistry tools and services for materials discovery.
The solutions developed by NovoDymanics, as part
of the ATP project, are now incorporated into a new
software package, NovoD HTI™, that is used
for experimental planning. |
Date created: June
1, 2005
Last updated:
August 21, 2006
|
