Systems Installed

Years of Innovation

Proven Applications

Patents

Highest Data Quality

Reproducible results with accurate microfluidics distribution. Large isothermal zone with perfect catalyst-feed contacting.

Unmatched Accuracy

Multi-parallel reactors systems that generate accurate data with outstanding reactor-to-reactor repeatability.

Proven Applications

Proven Flowrence® technology broadly used with multiple applications thanks to decades of research and development.

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Safe to Operate

Inherently safe small-scale reactor technology with minimal chemicals hold up with very fast flushing times. Easy to operate <1 FTE required.

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Validated by Customers

Flowrence® technology extensively used by catalyst suppliers and research institutes to accelerate their catalyst R&D.

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Fast Screening

Reduced time-to-market with high throughput testing for process optimization and catalyst screening.

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Lower Costs

Lower Total Cost of Ownership with small scale testing compared with large scale. Achieve important cost savings per experiment.

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Small Footprint

Smallest footprint in the market with low infrastructure costs. Increase the number of reactors in your lab with minimal space required.

We provide our customers the world's most high throughput technology powered by decades of research

Flowrence® Products

4 Reactors

Avantium’s most flexible and easy to use system with a broad number of proven applications. Designed for early-stage catalyst R&D.

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16 Reactors

Our most accurate system with a broad operating window. Designed for fast catalyst screening with outstanding repeatability and reproducibility.

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16 Reactors

Our most advanced system combining all technology of the Flowrence® XR with independent control per reactor for kinetic studies and process design.

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4 Reactors

This system was purposely designed for benchmarking of commercial catalysts.

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Powered by decades of research

Key technology features

Microfluidics distribution

Single glass chip for 16-reactors with 0.5% RSD, offers unmatched reactor-to-reactor repeatability. Easy exchange for different operating conditions.

Tiny-Pressure

Modular, compact, and easy exchange of glass-chips, with integrated pressure indicators.

Tube-in-tube reactor

Easy and quick reactor exchange system. Possibility to use quartz reactors at high pressure.

EasyLoad®

Unique and easy-to-use reactor closing system. “Ready-to-go” approach without leak testing required.

Full particles and powder loading

No dead-zones, no bed packing or distribution effects. No variability in reactor loading. Small volumes, no compromises.

FlowPro Software

Software purposely build for high throughput systems. Full integration of online and offline data.

Reactor pressure control

The most accurate and stable pressure regulator for 16-reactors, just ±0.5bar RSD.

Active liquid distribution

The most accurate liquid distribution for 16 reactors with active control. Reactor-to-reactor 0.5% RSD.

Individual temperature control

Flexibility in test design with independent Reactor Temperature Control (iRTC).

Automated liquid sampling

Programmable, fully automated liquid product sampling robot for 24/7 hands-off operation.

Proven applications with the Flowrence®

Ammonia Synthesis and Decomposition

Ammonia catalyst testing is a perfect fit for the 4-reactors Flowrence XD and the 16-reactors Flowrence XR. Inherently safe with small-scale reactors and small volume holdup, with the smallest footprint in the industry. Advantages in ammonia containment with no customized ammonia storage required. Proven online GC analytics and stable liquid pumping with immediate evaporation at the inlet of the of the reactors. Easy to combine synthesis and reforming in one system!

“These new Flowrence systems strengthen our high-throughput facilities for heterogeneous catalysis and make sure that our researchers keep having access to state of the art technology. We have an excellent experience with Avantium’s equipment and technical support and look forward to developing new catalysts by making use of these systems.”

Jorge Gascon, Director & Full Professor, KAUST Catalysis Center

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Conditions: 1 bar, 350-500 °C, NH3 flow: 1.4-8.0 mL min-1, GHSV = 5500-32000 mL gcat-1h-1
NH3 conv. = 1-78 %; TOS = 12 h (above), 100 h (below)

2NH3 à N2 + 3H2
Ammonia employed as a promising green hydrogen carrier by reversible synthesis/decomposition.
Key challenge is maintaining catalyst performance over time at high NH3 conversion and low temperature
This research employed Hastelloy equipped Flowrence® XD with 4 parallel reactors to assess catalytic performance for various Ru-based catalysts.

Kim, Nguyen, Mahmood, Yavuz, , Chemical Engineering Journal 463, (2023), p.142474

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CO2 (and CO) Valorization

2 Flowrence® XD high throughput catalyst testing systems with 4-reactors installed at the Catalysis Hub of ETH Zürich configured for CO₂ and Methane valorization. The Flowrence® XD systems are embedded in a glovebox, allowing to test moisture and oxygen-sensitive catalysts and recover spent catalysts after reaction without air exposure for subsequent surface characterization. This feature vastly increases the catalyst testing options.

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CO-to-Aromatics

Conditions: 20 bar, 300 °C, H2/CO = 1 V/V, GHSV = 4,500-40,000 h−1
TOS = 6-9 h, CO conv. = 15–20 %

Investigated syngas-to-aromatics over stacked bed
Fe-K-based FT catalyst upstream of H-ZSM-5 olefin-to-aromatics catalyst
Understanding of single pass-through syngas-to-aromatics systems established
All catalysts tested in parallel with different bed heights and GHSVs

J.L. Weber et al., Catal Today, 2021, 369, 175–183.

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CO₂-to-Methanol

Conditions: 4.2 mg Cu per reactor, 40 bar(g), 600 mL min−1 gCu−1, H2/CO2/He = 67.5/22.5/10 vol%.

Effect of Cu particle size (4-20 nm) on CO2 hydrogenation investigated.
Fully automated pretreatment and performance testing.
5 catalyst formulations tested in parallel between 200-260 °C for over 100 h at 40 bar.
Small particles (< 13 nm) had low activity, but high MeOH selectivity
Catalytic performance and selectivity results in line with Density Functional Theory (DFT)

L. Barberis et al., Nanoscale, 2022, 14, 13551–13560.

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CO₂-to-Olefin and MeOH

Investigated the effect of steam addition (0-7 %) during MOF pyrolysis during Fe and In MOF-based catalyst synthesis.
4 catalysts tested in parallel
Performance in high pressure CO2 hydrogenation to olefins and MeOH investigated at 350 °C and 50 bar
Accurate conversions and selectivities determined towards CO, hydrocarbons (C1-C5+), MeOH and DME
Fe-based MOFs exhibited improved selectivity towards higher olefins (above)
In-based MOFs exhibited improved selectivity towards MeOH (below)

I. S. Khan et al., ACS Catal, 2023, 13, 1804–1811.

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Dry Reforming of Methane

Reaction conditions:
(a) 1 bar, 800 °C, GHSV = 30,000 mL/(gcat h)
(b) 14 bar, 800 °C, GHSV = 12,000 mL/(gcat h)

CO2 + CH4 > 2CO + 2H2
Investigate the effect of catalyst promotion of Ni-based DRM catalysts
DRM performance studied between 550-800 °C.
- Accurate analytics (e.g., H2/COx ratio) essential for mechanistic insights.
Catalyst stability and deactivation measured at 800 °C at both 1 bar (250 h) and 14 bar (40 h)
- High temperature studies enabled by Flowrence® compatibility with quartz reactors
- High pressure study with quartz enabled by Flowrence® tube-in-tube reactor design

X. Yao et al., Appl Catal B, 2023, 328, 122479.
V. K. Velisoju et al., Journal of CO2 Utilization, 2023, 75, 102573.

Dry Reforming of Methane (DRM)

Reaction conditions:
(a) 1 bar, 800 °C, GHSV = 30,000 mL/(gcat h)
(b) 14 bar, 800 °C, GHSV = 12,000 mL/(gcat h)

CO2 + CH4 à 2CO + 2H2
Investigate the effect of catalyst promotion of Ni-based DRM catalysts
DRM performance studied between 550-800 °C.
- Accurate analytics (e.g., H2/COx ratio) essential for mechanistic insights.
Catalyst stability and deactivation measured at 800 °C at both 1 bar (250 h) and 14 bar (40 h)
- High temperature studies enabled by Flowrence® compatibility with quartz reactors
- High pressure study with quartz enabled by Flowrence® tube-in-tube reactor design

X. Yao et al., Appl Catal B, 2023, 328, 122479.
V. K. Velisoju et al., Journal of CO2 Utilization, 2023, 75, 102573.

CO₂-to-Olefin and MeOH

Reaction conditions: 1 bar, 800 °C, and GHSV = 16,100 mL/(gcat h)

CO2 + CH4 à 2CO + 2H2
Investigated the effect of Zn-doping on ZrO2-supported Ni-based catalyst performance in DRM between 550-800 °C
Stability measured at 800 °C for over 100 h to study catalyst deactivation
Accurate analytics to determine H2/COx ratio vital to obtain mechanistic insights (DRM vs. reverse water-gas shift)
High temperature performance and stability study enabled by Flowrence® compatibility with quartz reactors

V. K. Velisoju et al., Journal of CO2 Utilization, 2023, 75, 102573.

Fischer-Tropsch, Synthesis of Methanol, Ammonia, and Higher Alcohols

Flowrence® XD 4-parallel reactor system provided to Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel is highly flexible, self-contained fixed-bed catalyst testing unit which excels at producing valuable data promptly leveraging high-throughput chemical technology. This technology offers you step-change improvements in the effectiveness of R&D efforts to generate your valuable results and facilitates the reproduction and comparison of catalyst performance over multiple runs. Researchers can test the process performance of a variety of catalysts with peace of mind that their results are accurate, reliable and reproducible.

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Fischer-Tropsch

Influence of Na and S on CoMn-based FT catalysts investigated
8 catalyst systems tested in parallel
Assessed performance at different T (240-280 °C) and P (3-10 bar). Conditions: Flowrence® XR,a Activity and selectivity at 240–280 °C, 10 bar, and H2/CO = 2, and b activity and selectivity at 240 °C, 3–10 bar, and H2/CO = 2.
Assessed evolution of stability and selectivity evolution (70+ h). Conditions: Flowrence® XR, 3 bar, 220 °C, H2/CO = 2 V/V, conversion < 10 %

J. Xie et al., Nat Commun, 2019, 10, 167.

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Hydrocracking, Hydrotreating, ULSD, Dewaxing, and Vegetable Oil

Download article > Catalysis 2022 – Data quality obtained in refinery catalyst testing

The examples provided in this article clearly show that the Avantium Flowrence high-throughput 16-parallel reactors system produces consistent high data quality (repeatability, reproducibility, and scalability) for hydroprocessing applications.
This high quality can only be achieved with the highest accuracy and precision in gas and liquid distribution with patented microfluidic glass chips, excellent pressure control, and the most accurate and narrowest mass balance. Also, the reactor design allows for a long, accurate, and precise isothermal zone where we ensure a plug flow regime. Typical issues related to bed packing and distribution effects are avoided with Avantium’s SPSR catalyst loading approach. This article also show examples of the scalability of this technology, comparing results with bench-scale and pilot-scale reactors.

Benchmarking Diesel Hydrotreating Loading Schemes

Download article > PTQ Catalysis 2023 – Optimising diesel hydrotreating catalyst loading scheme

This article describes the results from ULSD testing where four experimental conditions were used to evaluate the catalysts during each run, in addition to the initial lining-out step after the sulphiding of the catalysts. The following section presents a summary of the main results obtained during the evaluation test for comparing catalyst performance with the three levels of LCO: 15%, 30%, and 45%.

Hydrotreating of Vegetal Oil

Download article > Quickly screen catalysts for hydrotreating of vegetable oil using high-throughput micro-pilot plants

This article shows the results obtained in a Flowrence XP processing Vegetable Oil. Takeaways. No plugging was observed in any of small-scale reactors during the 23-d test with various VO blends and 6-d of running 100% VO. Quantifying the
amount of water in the gas effluent using an online GC is a feasible method for closing the mass balance. The accuracy of the mass balance and yields obtained during the test are similar to conventional hydroprocessing catalyst testing.

Naphtha Reforming, Transalkylation, Metathesis, and other Aromatics

Download article > 2023 – HP Reliable naphtha reforming catalyst testing

This article presents the new test designed developed by Avantium in collaboration with Axens and UOP. This innovative test design is enabled by the Flowrence XP and the independent control per reactor for kinetic studies and process design.

Download article > PTQ Catalysis 2021 – Refinery’s performance confirms Reforming catalyst testing

This article provides a comparison of the test results obtained in a Flowrence XR and the commercial naphtha reforming unit.

Fully automated with preprogrammed recipes for naphtha reforming catalyst testing and integrated GC with built-in constant octane testing (iso-RON), multi-coking testing (iso-Coking, patent pending), and isothermal testing. Powered by our extensive experience in naphtha reforming catalyst testing for refineries. This systems comes prepared to test Isomerization and Aromatics catalysts with feed drying, moisture level measurement, and dedicated liquid cleaning circuit.

This 16-reactors system can be used to test catalysts from:

- Naphtha Reforming
- Isomerization
- Transalkylation
- Disproportionation
- Metathesis
- Dealkylation
- Other Aromatics

Oligomerization

Reaction conditions: 150-300 °C, Propene conversion < 10 %

Influence of zeolite framework (MFI, MTW, TON), crystallite size, and pore diameter, on propene oligomerization rate.
Catalysts’ performance compared in parallel between 150-300 °C with clear crystallite size effects observed at high temperatures.
Stable catalyst screening

N. Hijazi and J. Gascon, React Chem Eng, 2023, DOI:10.1039/D3RE00285C

Selective Acetylene Hydrogenation

Avantium performed multiple tests in a dedicated Flowrence^® XR high-throughput system with 16-parallel-reactors to validate its performance for the evaluation of commercial Selective Acetylene Hydrogenation catalysts, under industrial conditions, and facilitating the discrimination of catalysts with similar performance by providing accurate, repeatable and reproducible Operating Window results.

Avantium’s Flowrence^® XR parallel fixed bed reactor platform has been validated by Axens.

See related news item with Axens

Discover how our customers are leveraging Artificial Intelligence with the Flowrence®

Argonne National Lab 16-reactors Flowrence® XR

Avantium’s 16-reactor fixed bed Flowrence® XR unit was used to study the deposition of 23 different metallic precursors for propyne dimerization to hexadienes in a high-throughput data-driven campaign. A combination of high throughput experiments with computational and machine learning approaches were imperative to finding optimized reaction conditions.

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Recent case studies

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High-throughput catalyst testing in our laboratories tailored for any R&D stage

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Reactor-to-reactor repeatability

An important quality criteria in parallelized reactors systems is reactor-to-reactor repeatability. A good repeatability is achieved when reactors loaded with the same catalyst system yield the same results. This means that the test results and the differences (in...