Research lead
A researcher at Eindhoven University of Technology has developed a foam liner for gas-liquid reactors that improves the reaction rate and reduces costs.
The researcher, Charl Stemmet, tested the properties of a highly porous solid foam with up to 97 percent open space and a very large surface volume surface, as a reactor lining. The large surface area is important for mass-transfer-limited, gas-liquid reactions because the greater the surface area, the greater the production per unit of reactor volume.
The foam reactor has a catalyst carrying capacity that is 1.5 times as great as a traditional packed bed for the same gas and liquid flows, and the same production rate. However, the energy efficiency of the foam reactor is ten times higher than that of the packed bed.
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