Books

Prof. Volker Hessel has contributed to approximately 30 book chapters

Prof. Volker Hessel has been invited as the co-author of 28 books. Most of his works emphasize the application of microreactor in the field of flow chemistry.

  • 2018
  • 2017
  • 2016

    • Microwaves in cu-catalyzed organic synthesis in batch and flow mode

      Copper catalysis has been regarded as a major contributor to the current developments and improvements in heterogeneous catalyzed organic syntheses. Especially, the fine-chemicals industry has been a target for implementation of these developments with respect to both scale and cost. This chapter addresses the major hurdles to combine microwave and flow-process technology in Cu-catalyzed organic syntheses. In comparison to gas-phase reactions, metal-catalyzed liquid-phase organic syntheses require different operational process windows to realize successful implementation of microwave and flow processing. The use of metallic catalysts under microwave irradiation provides an exceptional property of direct and rapid energy absorption at the spot of the chemical conversion. This unique characteristic, however, requires special attention regarding temperature control and energy distribution in a reactor. This chapter deals with several Cu-catalyzed chemical reactions under microwave irradiation in both batch and flow conditions, including the most recent developments reported in the literature.

      Benaskar et al

    • Plasma catalysis for nitrogen fixation reactions

      The preferences for localized chemicals production and changing scenarios of renewable electricity cost gives a renewed boost to plasma-assisted valuable chemicals production. Especially, plasma-assisted nitrogen fixation for fertilizer production has the potential to largely change the energy structure in bulk chemicals production. Nitrogen is the most fundamental element for sustaining life on earth and responsible for production of a wide range of synthetic products. The chemical nitrogen fixation process, i.e. the Haber–Bosch ammonia production process, is one of the most important chemical processes, which supports ∼40% of the global population by producing more than 130 million tons of ammonia per year and requires ∼1–2% of the world’s total energy consumption. Thermal plasma nitric oxide synthesis was already commercialized in 1903, however it had lower energy efficiency. It is theoretically possible to fix nitrogen with lower energy input by non-thermal plasmas. Therefore, much effort has been expended to develop and improve plasma NO, NH3 and HCN syntheses—this includes investigation of the different types of plasma reactors, the synergy between plasma and catalysts as well as improvement of the heat exchange. All these reported literature efforts have been summarized and critically analyzed in this book chapter. An outlook on further possible developments in plasma-assisted chemical synthesis processes is also given.

      Patil et al

  • 2015

    • Beyond organometallic flow chemistry : the principles behind the use of continuous-flow reactors for synthesis

      Flow chemistry is typically used to enable challenging reactions which are difficult to carry out in conventional batch equipment. Consequently, the use of continuous-flow reactors for applications in organometallic and organic chemistry has witnessed a spectacular increase in interest from the chemistry community in the last decade. However, flow chemistry is more than just pumping reagents through a capillary and the engineering behind the observed phenomena can help to exploit the technology’s full potential. Here, we give an overview of the most important engineering aspects associated with flow chemistry. This includes a discussion of mass-, heat-, and photon-transport phenomena which are relevant to carry out chemical reactions in a microreactor. Next, determination of intrinsic kinetics, automation of chemical processes, solids handling, and multistep reaction sequences in flow are discussed. Safety is one of the main drivers to implement continuous-flow microreactor technology in an existing process and a brief overview is given here as well. Finally, the scale-up potential of microreactor technology is reviewed.

      Noel et al