The AVN Blog

A specialty monomer was identified by a customer as a target product from a proposed alkylation reaction. A fixed bed catalytic reactor was prepared and operated to investigate the details of the reaction. Products were collected, analyzed, and used to test purification by distillation. Results from a series of tests… Read More

A company was looking for alternative approaches to chemically convert a polymer to a unique specialty product of interest. AVN conceived of an approach that opens the polymer framework to allow the reaction to proceed more effectively. The process was evaluated over a range of conditions at laboratory scale and… Read More

A highly exothermic oxidation process using a fixed-bed heterogeneous catalyst was being investigated by a customer, who needed the capability of testing the catalyst at pilot scale. AVN charged the catalyst to our MAN Diesel & Turbo molten salt tubular reactor with three independent zones for temperature control. Reactor tubes… Read More

A company was considering an alternative route to an existing product and needed to investigate a number of options. AVN assessed the possible approaches, including the choice of starting materials, the resulting process requirements, and the separation issues involved. A recommended approach was tested in the laboratory, which validated its… Read More

A customer wanted to evaluate the potential to produce larger quantities of an experimental polyolefin product previously made in small lab-scale batches. AVN set up a larger autoclave to perform the reaction as a semi-batch process for more efficient operation. The product was shown to have the desired properties, and… Read More