Chemie Ingenieur Technik

Major progress in the understanding of the adsorption, pore condensation and hysteresis behavior of fluids in novel ordered nanoporous materials with well defined pore structure has led to major advances in the structural characterization by physical adsorption, also because of the development and availability of advanced theoretical procedures based on statistical mechanics which allows to describe adsorption and phase behavior of fluids in pores on a molecular level.

This work discusses different catalyst designs along with the appropriate electrochemical characterization methods in order to reduce the amount of iridium required as a catalyst in proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers to levels commensurate with a large-scale application of the technology.

This article summarizes recent use of surrogate modeling in the chemical process engineering field and presents several examples found in the literature. Through the use of these mathematically simpler representations of complex functions or process simulations, the computational effort of optimization or study has simplified considerably.

The conversion of exhaust gases from the steel industry into methanol is a promising way to reduce the carbon footprint via CO₂ hydrogenation. Due to the unsteadiness of renewable energies for the required H₂ production, other hydrogen sources must be found. Methane pyrolysis appears as a green alternative to meet the hydrogen demand since it provides CO₂-free H₂.

An overview of molten salt energy storage in commercial concentrating solar power plants as well as new fields for its application is given. With regard to the latter, energy-intensive industrial processes, conventional power plants, and bulk electrical storage sytems are discussed.