Inductive heating of catalysts and novel reactor designs

Electromagnetic inductive heating is an emerging technology for heat management in catalytic applications. Aside from a huge potential to drive electrification of industrial processes, inductive heating enables process intensification, may increase energy efficiency, and represents a highly dynamic heating concept. In this associated project, we explore the application of inductive heating for catalytic converters with several scale-bridging approaches from lab-based reactor dimensions to the nanometre scale. One approach is the deposition of separately synthesized noble metal nanoparticles on larger particles or structures, which exhibit a certain magnetic susceptibility facilitating inductive heating. Alternatively, conventional catalysts are decorated with appropriate nanoparticulate materials, such as iron carbide nanoparticles, or physically mixed with bulk structures, e.g. stainless steel beads. Inductive heating will be incorporated in testing facilities for initial conceptual evaluation of developed materials and comparison with conventional heating concepts.