Structured reactors for kinetic measurements under severe conditions in catalytic combustion over palladium supported systems

The collection of chemical kinetics data in catalytic combustion over very active palladium catalysts under conditions relevant to practical applicati ons (e.g. gas turbine combustors) is extremely difficult, mainly due to str ong exothermicity and very fast rate of combustion reactions. Within this p urpose in this paper two types of laboratory structured reactors, which clo sely resemble industrial monolith catalysts, are investigated: (a) the annu lar reactor, consisting of a catalyst coated ceramic tube, co-axially place d in a quartz tube; (b) the metallic plate-type reactor, consisting of an a ssembled packet of metallic slabs coated with a ceramic catalytic layer. The design of the annular reactor configurations for kinetic investigations is first addressed by mathematical modeling. The resulting advantages, inc luding: (i) negligible pressure drops; (ii) minimal impact of diffusional l imitations in high temperature-high GHSV experiments; (iii) effective dissi pation of reaction heat are then experimentally demonstrated for the case o f CH4 combustion over a PdO/gamma -Al2O3 catalyst with high noble metal loa ding (10% (W/W) of Pd). The feasibility of a near-isothermal operation with the metallic plate-type reactor by an extremely effective dissipation of reaction heat through pro per selection of highly conductive support material and of the geometry of the metallic slabs is finally discussed and experimentally demonstrated for the case of combustion of CO at high concentrations over a PdO/gamma -Al2O 3 (3% (w/w) of Pd) catalyst. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights rese rved.