Influence of Pressure, Velocity and Fluid Material on Heat Transport in Structured Open-Cell Foam Reactors Investigated Using CFD Simulations
Structured open-cell foam reactors are promising for managing highly exothermic reactions such as CO<sub>2</sub> methanation due to their excellent heat transport properties. Especially at low flow rates and under dynamic operation, foam-based reactors can be advantageous over classic fi...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-11-01
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| Series: | ChemEngineering |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2305-7084/4/4/61 |
| _version_ | 1797547883677876224 |
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| author | Christoph Sinn Jonas Wentrup Jorg Thöming Georg R. Pesch |
| author_facet | Christoph Sinn Jonas Wentrup Jorg Thöming Georg R. Pesch |
| author_sort | Christoph Sinn |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Structured open-cell foam reactors are promising for managing highly exothermic reactions such as CO<sub>2</sub> methanation due to their excellent heat transport properties. Especially at low flow rates and under dynamic operation, foam-based reactors can be advantageous over classic fixed-bed reactors. To efficiently design the catalyst carriers, a thorough understanding of heat transport mechanisms is needed. So far, studies on heat transport in foams have mostly focused on the solid phase and used air at atmospheric pressure as fluid phase. With the aid of pore-scale 3d CFD simulations, we analyze the effect of the fluid properties on heat transport under conditions close to the CO<sub>2</sub> methanation reaction for two different foam structures. The exothermicity is mimicked via volumetric uniformly distributed heat sources. We found for foams that are designed to be used as catalyst carriers that the working pressure range and the superficial velocity influence the dominant heat removal mechanism significantly. In contrast, the influence of fluid type and gravity on heat removal is small in the range relevant for heterogeneous catalysis. The findings might help to facilitate the design-process of open-cell foam reactors and to better understand heat transport mechanisms in foams. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T14:51:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-10feb071f4ae4e17bfe1cc7c03f901a1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2305-7084 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T14:51:29Z |
| publishDate | 2020-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | ChemEngineering |
| spelling | doaj.art-10feb071f4ae4e17bfe1cc7c03f901a12023-11-20T20:56:41ZengMDPI AGChemEngineering2305-70842020-11-01446110.3390/chemengineering4040061Influence of Pressure, Velocity and Fluid Material on Heat Transport in Structured Open-Cell Foam Reactors Investigated Using CFD SimulationsChristoph Sinn0Jonas Wentrup1Jorg Thöming2Georg R. Pesch3Faculty of Production Engineering, Chemical Process Engineering Group, University of Bremen, Leobener Strasse 6, 28359 Bremen, GermanyFaculty of Production Engineering, Chemical Process Engineering Group, University of Bremen, Leobener Strasse 6, 28359 Bremen, GermanyFaculty of Production Engineering, Chemical Process Engineering Group, University of Bremen, Leobener Strasse 6, 28359 Bremen, GermanyFaculty of Production Engineering, Chemical Process Engineering Group, University of Bremen, Leobener Strasse 6, 28359 Bremen, GermanyStructured open-cell foam reactors are promising for managing highly exothermic reactions such as CO<sub>2</sub> methanation due to their excellent heat transport properties. Especially at low flow rates and under dynamic operation, foam-based reactors can be advantageous over classic fixed-bed reactors. To efficiently design the catalyst carriers, a thorough understanding of heat transport mechanisms is needed. So far, studies on heat transport in foams have mostly focused on the solid phase and used air at atmospheric pressure as fluid phase. With the aid of pore-scale 3d CFD simulations, we analyze the effect of the fluid properties on heat transport under conditions close to the CO<sub>2</sub> methanation reaction for two different foam structures. The exothermicity is mimicked via volumetric uniformly distributed heat sources. We found for foams that are designed to be used as catalyst carriers that the working pressure range and the superficial velocity influence the dominant heat removal mechanism significantly. In contrast, the influence of fluid type and gravity on heat removal is small in the range relevant for heterogeneous catalysis. The findings might help to facilitate the design-process of open-cell foam reactors and to better understand heat transport mechanisms in foams.https://www.mdpi.com/2305-7084/4/4/61computational fluid dynamics (CFD)conjugate heat transferopen-cell foamsstructured reactorsvolumetric heat sourcesfluid properties |
| spellingShingle | Christoph Sinn Jonas Wentrup Jorg Thöming Georg R. Pesch Influence of Pressure, Velocity and Fluid Material on Heat Transport in Structured Open-Cell Foam Reactors Investigated Using CFD Simulations ChemEngineering computational fluid dynamics (CFD) conjugate heat transfer open-cell foams structured reactors volumetric heat sources fluid properties |
| title | Influence of Pressure, Velocity and Fluid Material on Heat Transport in Structured Open-Cell Foam Reactors Investigated Using CFD Simulations |
| title_full | Influence of Pressure, Velocity and Fluid Material on Heat Transport in Structured Open-Cell Foam Reactors Investigated Using CFD Simulations |
| title_fullStr | Influence of Pressure, Velocity and Fluid Material on Heat Transport in Structured Open-Cell Foam Reactors Investigated Using CFD Simulations |
| title_full_unstemmed | Influence of Pressure, Velocity and Fluid Material on Heat Transport in Structured Open-Cell Foam Reactors Investigated Using CFD Simulations |
| title_short | Influence of Pressure, Velocity and Fluid Material on Heat Transport in Structured Open-Cell Foam Reactors Investigated Using CFD Simulations |
| title_sort | influence of pressure velocity and fluid material on heat transport in structured open cell foam reactors investigated using cfd simulations |
| topic | computational fluid dynamics (CFD) conjugate heat transfer open-cell foams structured reactors volumetric heat sources fluid properties |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2305-7084/4/4/61 |
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