CRC 1615 SMART Reactors - TUHH

In the DFG Collaborative Research Centre 1615 "SMART Reactors for Future Process Engineering", we are working with scientists from the fields of process engineering, materials science, electrical engineering, chemistry, physics and mathematics to create the scientific basis for a new generation of reactors for the process engineering of a sustainable future. These "S M A R T" reactors will convert in a more Sustainable way renewable resources into different products (Multi-purpose) and operate Autonomously (self-adapting), leading to more Resilient processes that are more Transferable between scales and locations. Started in 2023, CRC 1615 is divided into three scientific project areas, which are closely interlinked and build on each other: In Project Area A, "Development of components for in situ detection and self-regulation of SMART reactors", individual reactor components (e.g. stimuli-responsive polymeric internals, reactive catalytic surfaces) will be developed and their self-regulation mechanisms are tested on a small scale. In Project Area B, "Experimentally assisted modelling of local process conditions tailored with self-adaptive components", the process conditions required for the SMART reactors targeted in Project Area C will be investigated experimentally and numerically with regard to thermodynamics, local transport phenomena and their actuation mechanisms in real process environments. This will clarify how the components delivered by Project Area A will need to adapt to cope with critical process conditions. Project Area C, "Investigating self-adjustment of SMART reactors at pilot scale", will develop concepts for the integration of individual components from Project Area A into prototype reactors, which are operated according to the models and insights gained in Project Area B. Both the reaction itself and the corresponding downstream processing (e.g. formulation) will be addressed exemplarily for fluid-fluid and solid-fluid systems.