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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 50: Wetting, Droplets, and Microfluidics (joint session DY/CPP)
DY 50.7: Talk
Thursday, March 21, 2024, 16:45–17:00, BH-N 334
Leveraging geometry and catalyst distribution to optimize the yield of catalytic microreactors — •Goncalo Antunes1, Paolo Malgaretti1, and Jens Harting1,2 — 1Helmholtz-Institut Erlangen-Nürnberg für Erneurbare Energien, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Erlangen, Germany — 2Department Chemie- und Bioinginieurwesen und Department Physik, Friedrichs-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany
We develop a semi-analytical model for transport in heterogeneous catalytic microreactors, where both reactant and product are in the gas phase. Making use of the lubrication and Fick-Jacobs approximations, we reduce the three-dimensional governing equations to an effective one-dimensional set of equations. Our model captures the effect of compressibility, of corrugations in the shape of the reactor, as well as of a non-homogeneous catalytic coating of the reactor walls. We then show how to optimize the output of product by tuning the geometrical and chemical properties of the reactor, such as its length, for which we find an optimum value. We further explore the compressible regime, in which an optimum corrugation height emerges. This height depend on the distribution of catalytic material. Finally, we apply our theory to a model porous material, and find an optimum pore size that maximizes the output of product.
Keywords: Catalytic reactor; Catalysis; Reactive flow; Compressible flow; Gas flow