Centre of excellence in catalyst development for oil refining and petrochemistry

On the basis of the Centre of Excellence in Catalyst Development for Oil Refining and Petrochemistry we have started developing new areas in catalysis connected with application of nano-sized clusters of transition metals, chemically decorated carbon nanotubes and nanostructures, as well as with development of methods for non-chemical activation of metal complex catalysts in the sphere of electrochemical technologies application.

Structure

• Laboratory Centre of Heterogeneous Catalysis (hydrogenation, dehydrogenation, isomerization of hydrocarbons)
  
• Laboratory of Catalysts for In-Situ Oil Conversion
  
• Laboratory of Homogenous Catalysis
  

Activity Plan (until 2020)

Research Component

• Research of processes of selective collection of ethylene-based oligomers with the use of transition metals and chemically modified nanomaterials (carbon nanotubes, nanoscale clusters of transition metals).
• Developing new unconventional approaches in collecting active forms of organometallic catalysts with the use of electrochemical methods.
• Publication of results in highly-ranked journals.

Academic Component

• Launching new educational programmes and methodological recommendations for KFU students.
• Preparing specialists in homogenous catalysis for HEIs and industry.

Practical Component

• Developing new types of catalyst systems for processes of homogenous oligomerization and polymerization of ethylene, ethylene polymerization and selective collection of required fractions of linear alpha-olefins.  Establishing new industry-oriented research laboratories dealing with homogenous catalysis. 
• Implementing new technologies at petrochemical plants in Tatarstan Republic and Russian Federation.

International Cooperation

• Participating in international research conferences and meetings presenting research achievements to the global community and sharing the results of joint research within international projects.
• Organizing training for students, young scholars and specialists at leading global research centers focused on homogenous catalysis studies.
• Attracting international partners and investors for the development of a new research field Homogenous catalysis at Kazan Federal University.

• ---

  
  

Unique equipment of the Centre

Polyclave (Catalytic complex for conducting catalytic screening of homogenous metal complex catalysts)

The device is aimed at studying catalytic activity of metal complex catalysts in processes of homogenous oligomerization and polymerization of ethylene. The fully automated system allows receiving the complete range of physical and chemical parameters of catalytic processes, including temperature supervision of reaction feed, pressure, stream velocity and gas-flow rate (monomers) during the experiment.