This community collection gathers results from the ROMEO H2020 project (2015-2019). ROMEO - Reactor Optimisation by Membrane Enhanced Operation,  gathers 9 European partners from industry and academia to implement an efficient platform for the optimal design of new reactors and reduce energy consumption in process industry. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N°680395.

ROMEO: Reactor Optimisation by Membrane Enhanced Operation

Membrane reactors represent an efficient intensification tool for homogeneous catalytic processes. The immobilization of ionic liquids on porous media – such as nanoparticles (SILP technology) or porous membranes (SILM technology) – is a very effective means in fixing catalyst for homogeneous catalysis. Thanks to ROMEO, industry and academia are teaming up aroung a new concept of "two-in-one" membrane reactors to reduce energy consumption and emissions in process industry.

ROMEO’S AIM

ROMEO gathers 9 European partners from industry and academia to implement an efficient platform for the optimal design of new reactors. Applied to large volume industrial processes, the innovative ROMEO’s approach will:

• improve selectivity and productivity of industrial reactions, including raw material savings
• reduce energy consumption by 80% in industrial catalytic gas-phase reactions
• reduce related emissions by 90%

ROMEO’s “two-in-one” reactors combine optimized membranes modules and the immobilization of ionic liquids to carry out chemical synthesis and downstream processing in a single step.

What’s new with ROMEO?

ROMEO intends to get detailed understanding of the processes involved in the well-argued design of new reactors, from Nano to Macro-scale. Two important reactions are chosen as demonstration cases: 

1. to convert olefins and syngas to aldehydes (precursors for plasticizer alcohols)
2. Water-gas shift reaction which uses CO or CO-containing syngas derived from biomass to generate hydrogen.

For both reactions, the work through work-packages will show how to SET UP ADAPTED TOOLBOXES by optimizing choice via modelling and simulation. Based on the use of building blocks, it aims to facilitate the conception of apparatus for a large set of applications.