The 5th International Conference
on Catalysis and Multiphase Reaction Engineering (CAMURE-5)
June 2005
Richardson Travel
Bursar Ranjit Kulkarni reports from the Slovenia conference
 The
5th International Conference on Catalysis and Multiphase Reaction
Engineering (CAMURE-5), was held in Portorosé, Slovenia,
June 2005. Previous conferences were held in Lausanne (2002),
Naples (2000), Toulouse (1998), and Lyon (1994) and were very
successful.
CAMURE-5 attracted a bumper attendance with participants
from across the globe. It brought together the research community
from academic, industrial and government institutions to exchange
ideas. It also enabled young scientists to present their studies
though offering a platform to discuss the latest technical
information on developments across the range of catalytic
multiphase and multifunctional reactors, and open up opportunities
for new research collaborations.
My research work focussed on understanding the effect of
fines (bed dilution) on the hydrodynamic performance of a
trickle bed reactor. The main objective was to utilise the
laboratory experimental data for better scale-up of reactors.
Experimental investigations were carried out for different
cases such as porous and non-porous catalyst supports, and
diluted and undiluted beds. The study revealed a significant
effect of porosity and fines addition in trickle beds.
A quantitative as well as qualitative analysis was provided
to justify the findings. The existing models from literature
were identified and tested. Out of several models available,
the one that closely represented our laboratory reactor set-up
was chosen. The unique feature of the work was testing the
model for porous catalyst bed diluted with fines.
This conference provided an excellent opportunity to present
my work, discuss the methodology and results with my peers
and eminent scientists in the field. Their input have been
valuable in terms of future work. The paper presented at this
conference has been selected for publication in a special
issue of the journal - Industrial and Chemical Engineering
Research published by the American Chemical Society.
The conference's plenary lectures addressed the main issues
and challenges in developing new catalysts, reactor concepts
and process intensification. The role of micro-reactors for
testing new products, high throughput catalyst screenings
and their capacity to influence the probability of success
was the main theme throughout the talks. Though most of the
lectures were on trickle bed reactors and monolith reactors,
there were also some very interesting talks on fuel cells
applications, reactive distillations, adsorptive reactors
and auto thermal reaction systems.
Participating in CAMURE helped me network and interact with
my peers and experts across the world. It was an opportunity
to make my own contribution to the advancement of multiphase
reaction technology and I would urge budding chemists and
engineers to participate. I am already planning to participate
in the next CAMURE hosted by the National Chemical Laboratory
in Pune, India in 2007.
Ranjit Kulkarni
University of Birmingham
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