ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with a brief outline of the design and fabrication of heterogeneous catalysts for chemical reactors. Most chemical reactions in the chemical and petrochemical process industries are heterogeneously catalysed. The design and development of a commercial catalyst has to be a compromise of often conflicting requirements. An ideal industrial catalyst should have activity, optimum selectivity, yield strength and abrasion resistance. For the purpose of catalyst design, reactors can be divided into two general classes: fixed bed and fluidised or slurry bed. In a fixed bed reactor, the catalyst remains stationary and the reactants are passed through the catalyst. Fluid bed reactors are often used with rapidly deactivating catalyst and allow either continuous replacement or regeneration to be performed. Oxide catalysts can be conveniently divided into two general categories: electrical insulators or semiconductors. The insulators are materials where the cationic species has a single valence state.
