To this day, catalysis retains a certain mystique – almost an aura of alchemy. Why?
Because successful industrial catalytic reactors are true “works of art”. They arise from the interplay of many disciplines: chemistry, engineering, manufacturing technology, materials science, mechanical engineering, physics, thermodynamics, analytics and experimental art. Keeping track of so many specialist areas is challenging even for experienced experts – and almost impossible for beginners.
But how do you introduce career starters or career changers with a professional interest to such a complex topic? And how can knowledge be passed on when many projects are shrouded in secrecy?
Dr. Nickl, founder of C&CS GmbH, describes his company’s path as follows:
Firstly, C&CS has a wealth of experience from around 100 applications, 500 customers and thousands of successfully completed projects. This knowledge is used specifically in day-to-day business and continuously expanded.
Secondly, the “Knowledge Database Applied Heterogeneous Catalysis” – WDBahK for short – was established. It serves to systematically record knowledge about catalysts, reactor operation and complete plants and to make it usable for internal purposes.
Thirdly, there is the training document “100 Words on Catalysis”. It summarizes all the relevant technical terms used in everyday practice in just a few pages – topics such as spatial velocity, cross-sensitivity, wall effect, ASPEN, Swagelok, kinetics, and activation energy.
New employees familiarize themselves with these “100 words” and thus benefit from already proven knowledge. This motivates, accelerates the learning curve and facilitates knowledge transfer – a real relief for experienced colleagues.
“My bold claim is: Anyone who masters these 100 words can conduct 80 percent of all customer conversations,” says Dr. Nickl. “The remaining 20 percent are so complex that experts have to get together anyway. That’s how we deal with complexity – and our contribution to the future knowledge society.”
And what does the future hold? “What kind of tsunamis artificial intelligence will trigger in catalysis makes the topic even more exciting,” said Dr. Nickl. “We are preparing for it.”
