Rational design of a methanation reactor by neutron imaging

Area of Science:

• Chemical Engineering
• Materials Science
• Physics

Background:

• Industrial chemical reactors operate under conditions significantly different from laboratory scales.
• Analyzing full-scale reactors requires analytical methods to quantify in-situ reactant and product distribution.
• Understanding these differences is crucial for optimizing chemical processes and reactor design.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and validate a non-destructive operando neutron imaging technique combined with modeling for analyzing chemical reactors.
• To investigate the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to methane as a model reaction.
• To enable quantitative, spatially and temporally resolved measurements of reaction processes under operating conditions.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing non-destructive operando neutron imaging integrated with a chemical reactor setup.
• Employing neutron imaging to measure the distribution of adsorbed water on the catalyst during CO2 hydrogenation.
• Combining experimental neutron imaging data with computational modeling for analysis and simulation.

Main Results:

• Successfully measured the temporal distribution of adsorbed water on the catalyst under industrial-like operating conditions (p, T).
• Quantitatively determined the partial pressure of water, indirectly enabling the assessment of spatial and temporal conversion.
• Demonstrated good agreement between simulation results and experimental neutron imaging data.

Conclusions:

• Operando neutron imaging combined with modeling is a reliable method for reactor characterization and design.
• The technique provides valuable insights for optimizing reactor dimensions and reaction conditions.
• This approach holds promise for application in analyzing industrial-scale chemical reactors.