Abstract: Accurately acquiring catalyst size and morphology is essential for supporting catalytic reaction process design and optimal control. We report an intelligent catalyst sizing and morphological classification method based on the Mask-RCNN framework. A dataset of 9880 high-resolution images was captured by using a self-made fiber-optic endoscopic system for 13 kinds of silicoaluminophosphate-34 (SAPO-34) catalyst samples with different coke. Then there were approximately 877881 individual particles extracted from this dataset by our AI-based particle recognition algorithm. To clearly describe the morphology of irregular particles, we proposed a hybrid classification criterion that combines five different parameters, which are deformity, circularity, roundness, aspect ratio, and compactness. Therefore, catalyst morphology can be classified into two categories with four types. The first category includes regular types, such as the spherical, ellipsoidal, and rod-shaped types. And all the irregular types fall into the second category. The experimental results showed that a catalyst particle tends to be larger when its coke deposition increased. Whereas particle morphology remained primarily spherical and ellipsoidal, the ratio of each type varied slightly according to its coke. Our findings illustrate that this is a promising approach to be developing intelligent instruments for catalyst particle sizing and classification.

Key words: Catalyst, Particle morphology, Neural networks, Particle size distribution, Irregular particles

摘要： Accurately acquiring catalyst size and morphology is essential for supporting catalytic reaction process design and optimal control. We report an intelligent catalyst sizing and morphological classification method based on the Mask-RCNN framework. A dataset of 9880 high-resolution images was captured by using a self-made fiber-optic endoscopic system for 13 kinds of silicoaluminophosphate-34 (SAPO-34) catalyst samples with different coke. Then there were approximately 877881 individual particles extracted from this dataset by our AI-based particle recognition algorithm. To clearly describe the morphology of irregular particles, we proposed a hybrid classification criterion that combines five different parameters, which are deformity, circularity, roundness, aspect ratio, and compactness. Therefore, catalyst morphology can be classified into two categories with four types. The first category includes regular types, such as the spherical, ellipsoidal, and rod-shaped types. And all the irregular types fall into the second category. The experimental results showed that a catalyst particle tends to be larger when its coke deposition increased. Whereas particle morphology remained primarily spherical and ellipsoidal, the ratio of each type varied slightly according to its coke. Our findings illustrate that this is a promising approach to be developing intelligent instruments for catalyst particle sizing and classification.

关键词: Catalyst, Particle morphology, Neural networks, Particle size distribution, Irregular particles