Dânia Constantino, Associate Laboratory LSRE-LCM | November 19, 2020 – 14H30 | Online

Process Intensification (PI) is a very important stage to reach feasible chemical processes towards large-scale implementation. PI implies the development of new devices or engineering methods able to improve yield and selectivity attained in the conventional route. Usually, PI strategies comprise safer, cleaner, and smaller plants promoting higher energy efficiency by reducing equipment and/or steps required to achieve the desired product.

Novel photoreactors design promoting better contact between the photocatalyst and reactants, and different irradiation systems allowing higher illumination and energy efficiency, have shown great ability to enhance the photocatalytic processes covering a wide range of applications. Hence, different PI configurations have been proposed as alternatives to the conventional processes aiming to reduce both operating and capital costs associated with downstream units, among others. This seminar will focus on some of these alternatives, coupled and hybrid photocatalytic processes, which will be illustrated with practical examples from the literature, highlighting the advantages and challenges from the industrial point of view.

Dânia Constantino graduated in Chemical Engineering at Faculty of Engineering of University of Porto (FEUP) in 2009. Since then, she joined the Associate Laboratory LSRE-LCM research team participating in different projects involving, mainly, Process Intensification strategies for the production of green fuel additives and adsorption based reactive-separation processes. In 2016, she started the Doctoral program in Chemical and Biological Engineering at FEUP concluding her Ph.D. degree in 2019, with the thesis “Process Intensification for Butyl Acrylate Synthesis based on Sorption-Enhanced Reaction and Pervaporation based Hybrid Processes”. After that, she started working as a Post-Doctoral Researcher in LSRE-LCM, where, currently, she is the Junior Researcher of the LED-NETmix Project.

[Host: Joaquim L Faria, Associate Laboratory, LSRE-LCM]
Image credits: Dânia Constantino