(123d) Feed Contamination: We Have Met the Enemy --- It Are Us

Many chemical processes are comprised of production modules. Coupling two or more such modules may be required to produce a chemical product. Since such modules are connected, the product of one module becomes the feed of a downstream module. Thus, inadvertent contamination of the upstream product leads to manufacturing disruptions in the downstream module. This situation is particularly true when production in the downstream module depends upon a highly reactive; therefore, highly sensitive, catalyst, which generally means an expensive catalyst. There are many analytical methods for quantifying process stream contaminants; however, for highly active catalysts, most such contaminants are lethal at parts per million or less, which is generally at or below the detection limit of the analytical method. This paper discusses the use and limitations of various analytical methods for detecting and quantifying process stream contaminants with regard to catalyst deactivation. For highly active, sensitive catalysts, it is best to use a catalyst performance test to determine the quality of a given process stream. This paper also discusses such a test.