ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a lucid and accurate picture of catalyst preparation on a laboratory, pilot plant, and commercial scale. In the preparation of many catalysts, there are few, if any, problems in increasing the quantity prepared from that typical of the laboratory scale, that is, 25–50-gram quantities, to semiworks scale (usually from a few liters to a 100 or so liters per day) or to the scale of a commercial plant that would be producing ton quantities per day. An operation that has a greater adverse effect is for the catalyst in a paste form to be extruded through a barrel-type extruder. This requires no pilling lubricant and results in a relatively hard extrudate that on drying becomes sufficiently hard in some cases for commercial operation. The final operation to be considered in this scale of “adverse effect” is the pilling operation. Many catalysts are used in the form of impregnated particles.
