Chapter 19 - Highly Conductive Structured Catalysts for the Intensification of Methanol Synthesis in Multitubular Reactors

Abstract

We review a recent investigation of conductive structured catalysts with substrates consisting of either honeycomb monoliths or open-cell foams, for the intensification of methanol synthesis in Lurgi-type shell-and-tube converters. Numerical simulations reveal that catalyst supports based on Cu honeycombs or Cu foams enable safe operation of reactors with short tubes (even one meter only), which is not feasible for conventional packed-bed reactors due to their flow-dependent heat transfer mechanism, which would be adversely affected by slow velocities resulting in unacceptable hotspot temperatures. Compact reactors are nowadays of great interest for small-scale or transportable configurations of methanol synthesis processes. We further discuss the optimization of the conductive substrates for the methanol synthesis as well as their catalytic activation by washcoating. We eventually report experimental work to confirm the feasibility of washcoating copper foams with a Cu-ZnO/Al2O3 industrial catalyst. The coated structures were in fact successfully tested at representative industrial methanol synthesis conditions.