(419c) New Avenues in Data-Centric Microreaction Engineering for a Sustainable Future

The field of microreaction engineering, pioneered by Professor Klavs Jensen, has undergone exceptional growth since the late 1990s, giving rise to a plethora of new directions, and driven by interest in greener chemical processes. The technical portion of this talk will highlight new avenues in adjacent fields that build on microreaction engineering fundamentals. For instance, a lack of available experimental methods has limited, until recently, the field of gas hydrates. A deeper understanding of their crystallizations in confinement is now possible by introducing a methodology for the measurement of kinetics. A phenomenon called non-photochemical laser induced nucleation, discovered in the mid-1990s, remains a mystery that microreactors are now helping to better understand. Many of the early drivers for designing small-scale flow reactors in the first place parallel their recent application for reactions with plasmas, which are complicated, lightning fast, and uncharted waters in terms of the reaction chemistry. Rethinking how we perform laboratory experiments, synchronous with computers, also has the potential to make conventional research, development, and the manufacture of synthetic polymerizations greener. The techniques and tools in the microreaction engineering discipline are evolving data-centric, with continued emphasis on the development of predictive models from first-principles. The presentation will conclude with remarks on the impact Professor Jensen has had on the field of catalysis and reaction engineering, playing a key role in reshaping our profession, to set the stage for a younger generation and a sustainable future.