Dear Colleagues,

The first and second editions of the Special Issue entitled “Industrial Chemistry Reaction: Kinetics, Mass Transfer and Industrial Reactor Design” have both been successful. Two volumes have been published, each containing 11–12 different papers of high quality. It can be verified, on the Processes website, that the average number of paper downloads for the first volume is, in June 2023, 2600, with a range between a minimum of 1101 and a maximum of 7901. The second volume, although the deadline has recently expired, has collected an average number of paper downloads for each article of 1325 with a range of 359–3822. These data demonstrate that the papers published in Special Issues I and II have had a great visibility at an international level. For this reason, the Guest Editors have decided to promote a third edition of this Special Issue with a slight modification of the original title; it is thus entitled “Industrial Chemistry Reactions (3rd Edition): Kinetics, Mass and Heat Transfer in View of the Industrial Reactors Design”.

We would like to promote the publication of innovative approaches to catalysis, kinetics, mass and heat transfer, reactor design and simulation, and scale-up from laboratory to industrial plant. In particular, the publication of reviews on new trends and advances in the abovementioned fields are encouraged.

The aim of this proposed Special Issue is the same as that of the previous editions, that is, to collect contributions from experts worldwide in the field of industrial reactors design based on kinetic and mass transfer studies. The following areas/topics will be covered in this Special Issue:

• Kinetic studies for complex reaction schemes (multiphase systems);
• Kinetics and mass transfer in multifunctional reactors;
• Reactions in a mass transfer dominated regime (fluid–solid and intraparticle diffusive limitations);
• Kinetics and mass transfer modeling with alternative approaches (e.g., stochastic modeling);
• Pilot plant and industrial-size reactor simulation and scale-up based on kinetic studies (lab-to-plant approach).

Thus, in this Special Issue, original manuscripts that stand as examples for the scientific and technological communities of the modern approach to the investigation of industrial chemistry reactions are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Elio Santacesaria
Prof. Dr. Riccardo Tesser
Prof. Dr. Vincenzo Russo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Processes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• reactor design and simulation
• kinetics of chemical reactions
• complex reactions
• multiphase systems
• multifunctional reactors
• transport phenomena

• Industrial Chemistry Reactions: Kinetics, Mass Transfer and Industrial Reactor Design in Processes (13 articles)
• Industrial Chemistry Reaction: Kinetics, Mass Transfer and Industrial Reactor Design (II) in Processes (12 articles)

Title: Catalytic biomass transformation to hydrocarbons under supercritical conditions over nickel supported on schungite dust
Authors: Elena Schipanskaya, Antonina Stepacheva, Mariia Markova, Alexey Bykov, Alexander Sidorov, Valentina Matveeva, Mikhail Sulman, Lioubov Kiwi-Minsker*
Affiliation: Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne, Switzerland
Abstract: “Green diesel” produced from biomas via deoxygenation is a valuable alternative to replace petroleum-derived diesel. Success and cost-effectiveness of biomass processing rely on the active/stable catalyst and optimized reaction conditions. Significant intensification of deoxygenation can be achieved under supercritical conditions. This approach has been already applied by us resulting in the production of diesel-like hydrocarbons with high yield. Another challenge in deoxygenation process is to find an inexpensive, effective and stable catalyst. Herein, novel Ni-containing catalysts based on schungite dust as support were developed. Schungite stone is a natural carbo-mineral adsorbent, which is industrially used for water purification due to its high adsorption capacity and high mechanical stability. Schungite dust is a large-scale waste formed during schungite stone processing. It is inexpensive material that could be suitable support for the deoxygenation catalysts. However, the schungite dust has a big drawback that is its low specific surface area (SSA). Hydrothermal treatment of carbon-containing materials, when they are exposed to high-temperature aqueous solutions at high vapor pressures, is known to increase their SSA. We report herein novel catalysts prepared by hydrothermal deposition of Ni (active component) on schungite dust. Series of Ni-supported on schungite dust were obtained by hydrothermal deposition and for comparison via conventional wet-impregnation followed in both cases by calcinations at 500°C in flow of nitrogen for 5 hours. The catalysts were thoroughly characterized to determine their SSA, porosity, crystallinity, composition and active phase distribution. The catalytic activity of the synthesized samples was tested in stearic acid (model of biomass) deoxygenation in n-hexane under supercritical conditions. The catalyst synthesized by hydrothermal deposition of Ni showed a two-fold higher specific surface area as compared to the catalysts synthesized via conventional wet-impregnation. Moreover, the active phase deposited hydrothermally was more evenly distributed through the support with almost three times smaller mean particle size of Ni (ca. 4.5 nm) as compared to the impregnated ones. The catalyst testing demonstrated a significant increase of the deoxygenation rate (2.5-fold) and of target product (heptadecane) selectivity (about 20%) at close to 100% conversion. The catalyst reuse in 7 consecutive runs confirmed its stability.