Diamond America has been invited by Rutgers University to take part in its Catalyst Manufacturing Science and Engineering Consortium (CMSEC). The partnership includes Diamond America loaning one of its extruders to the consortium and the appearance of the company’s president, Terry Hendershot, at the CMSECs April meeting.
Diamond America will provide a Table Top 1″ (TT100) extruder to CMSEC for laboratory tests related to producing extrudable catalyst in a continuous manufacturing setting using Catapal B alumina, which is high purity boehmite. Preliminary tests completed with a crank press were successful and the TT100 will test the extrudability of the material under manufacturing conditions.
Hendershot will appear at CMSEC’s April meeting to discuss Diamond America?s expertise in catalyst extrusion and advise the consortium on how to adjust the extrusion process to improve efficiency while maximizing throughput. “We see this as a unique opportunity to be at the front-end of the growing catalyst extrusion market,” said Hendershot. “While the petroleum, chemical, pharmaceutical, automotive, and energy industries make and or use catalysts there needs to be a greater focus on the operations required to make catalytic materials. I believe CMSEC is at the forefront of this effort and we are pleased to be partnering with them.”
The specific goals of the consortium are to create a world-wide prime Center of Excellence in catalyst manufacturing research; enhance fundamental understanding of catalyst manufacturing operations; develop new technology for efficient catalyst manufacturing; and, provide a research, development, and education resource for industry.