Intensification of heat transfer in catalytic reactors by additively manufactured periodic open cellular structures (POCS)

Cellular structures are considered as alternative catalyst carrier with high potential for process intensification of catalytic reactors due to their remarkable combination of beneficial properties: high specific surface area, low pressure drop and adjustable heat transfer properties. In this contribution, the potential for heat transfer intensification of a new generation of cellular structures, so-called periodic open cellular structures (POCS), is investigated. These structures are produced via additive manufacturing which provides two major advantages. First, highly regular structures can be obtained with perfect reproducibility, which makes them ideal model systems for systematic investigations. Second, the design flexibility of the manufacturing techniques enables an innovative approach for structure optimization. Such optimization, however, requires a detailed understanding of the geometry-transport interaction. In this regard, the first advantage is exploited here to examine in detail the influence of each relevant property of the structure (material, morphology, wall coupling) on the heat transfer. These findings, along with newly derived correlations, enlarge the toolbox for the design of POCS for catalytic applications. Furthermore, POCS can now be designed and optimized a priori according to the needs of the given application. This adds a new degree of freedom to the process intensification approach regarding equipment optimization.