Optimizing catalyst supports at single catalyst pellet and packed bed reactor levels: A comparison study

Using a catalyst support with optimal pore network and pellet structures is critical to the success of an industrial heterogeneous catalyst. This work optimizes the catalyst support of a dry reforming of methane catalyst at packed bed reactor level, that is, effects of concentration and temperature gradients in the reactor are accounted for. Meanwhile, the optimization at reactor level is also compared with that at single catalyst pellet level where fixed concentrations and temperature are imposed on the pellet surface. Results show that the optimal structures obtained at pellet level are similar to these acquired at reactor level, but the improvements in catalyst performance calculated at pellet level are overestimated. Therefore, when designing an industrial catalyst pellet, the preferred structures can be obtained from the optimization at pellet level, but the corresponding improvements in catalyst performance should be evaluated at reactor level to reflect the reality in industry.

Automated summary

The study optimized the catalyst support for dry reforming of methane catalyst and found that the optimal structures obtained at pellet level were similar to those acquired at reactor level, but the improvements in catalyst performance calculated at pellet level were overestimated.