Michele Ongis
PhD thesis title: Catalytic membrane reactors modelling for process intensification
Academic Tutor: Paolo Chiesa
Academic Supervisor: Marco Binotti and Gioele Di Marcoberardino
PhD cycle: 35° (see all student profiles of the same cycle > LINK)
BSc: Energy Engineering, Politecnico di Milano
MSc: Energy Engineering, Politecnico di Milano
Visiting period at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Eindhoven, The Netherlands, planned from May 2023 until April 2024. Planning activity is the experimental investigation of the membrane reactors for models validation
Thesis abstract
My PhD work concerns the mathematical modelling of catalytic membrane reactors (CMRs), aiming to develop a tool able to reproduce their experimental results and to support their design stage. CMRs are integrated systems coupling catalytic reactions and product separation of one or more products, in which the separation operation is performed by a selective membrane. This reactor offers mainly two advantages: the production of a high-purity compound in a single equipment and, in case of reversible reactions, the possibility of reaching higher conversion respect to equilibrium values thanks to the products removal.
Personal interest in my research theme
Recently, many articles underline the increasing interest in CMRs’ several applications, both in biotechnologies and in inorganic field. Despite their potentiality, they are nowadays still not very used at industrial scale. Through modelling activity, performed on building blocks, reactor and process levels, I have the possibility to acquire a broad and validated overview of the recent developments of this new technology, which should bring it towards industrial use. Moreover I have the opportunity to study several potential applications of CMRs to processes not yet investigated.