Reaction Technology for Chemical Hydrogen Storage (INW-3)
INW-3 – Reaction Engineering deals with the scale of hydrogenation and dehydrogenation apparatus. In this area, there is still enormous potential for increasing volumetric productivity by optimizing heat management and hydrodynamics, which is particularly critical for success in all applications with high power density requirements. Optimization tools include reaction engineering and fluid mechanics models and reactor internals derived from them, catalytically activated structural elements for flow control, dosing concepts, approaches to hydrogen removal from the reactor (e.g., membrane reactors), and methods for improving heat input (e.g., condensation reactor, optimization of heat transfer from the heating elements to the reaction mixture).
Improving heat input (hydrogen release) and heat removal (hydrogen storage) also ensures that critical temperatures are not exceeded at any point in the reactor, above which the degradation of the catalyst or any organic storage molecules present increases significantly. In this respect, optimizing heat management in the reactor makes an important contribution to significantly increasing the service life of the catalysts and storage molecules in the respective processes, thereby reducing costly regeneration, cleaning, and recycling requirements.
The production of reactor elements optimized in terms of reaction and flow technology should preferably be carried out using additive processes, as this allows maximum geometric and conceptual design freedom. In the additive manufacturing of catalytically activated, structured reactors, however, not the entire reactor element is made from the expensive catalyst material, as this would result in unrealistically high costs. Instead, the starting point is low-cost metal structures with good thermal conductivity, which are manufactured using additive manufacturing processes with a hydrodynamically optimized structure. The surface of these structures is then catalytically activated in several process steps. Typically, this is done by coating the metallic structure with a highly porous catalyst support layer, e.g., made of aluminum oxide. The catalytically active component is then applied to this support layer using an impregnation process, making maximum use of the expensive precious metal components. Calcination and activation of the catalyst coating complete the production of such additively manufactured, structured reactor elements.
Director of the Institute
- Institute for a Sustainable Hydrogen Economy (INW)
Room T3.94
Secretariat
- Institute for a Sustainable Hydrogen Economy (INW)
Room 2008