Structure-transport relationships in porous media

An understanding of adsorption, transport, and reaction processes occurring within porous materials is central to the design and optimisation of chemical processing operations such as gas separations, catalysis, and soil remediation. To address many of the important questions in these areas the process engineer needs to characterise heterogeneities in both the physical and chemical properties of porous media, and to identify the importance of these properties in determining the operating characteristics of the system under consideration. In this paper three examples, each considering different types of structure-transport correlation, are discussed: (1) single and binary component adsorption processes in zeolites, (2) structure and transport heterogeneity in porous catalyst pellets, and (3) the characterisation of the interparticle space in packed beds of particles.