A study of the heat transfer characteristics of novel Ni‐foam structured catalysts

Highly exothermic reactions require catalyst beds with good heat transfer characteristics. Novel Ni‐foam structured catalysts have significant heat transfer efficiency compared with traditional packed beds, which is very suitable for the highly exothermic methanation reaction. The present work reports an experimental study of steady‐state heat transfer behaviour of a gas flowing through a fixed bed packed with Ni‐foam structured catalyst under various operation conditions. Experiments were carried out in a dedicated tubular reactor with inlet air temperature ranging from 160 to 200 °C, heating pipe temperature inside the fixed bed ranging from 400 to 500 °C, and air flow rate ranging from 4.0 to 6.0 Nm³/h. Effective radial conductivity (λ_er) and wall heat transfer coefficient (α_w) were derived based on the steady‐state measurements and the two‐dimensional pseudo‐homogeneous heat transfer model. The estimated values of λ_er and α_w were between 2.17 and 3.34 W/m · K and 170 to 250 W/m² · K respectively. Heat transfer properties of Ni‐foam structured catalyst are prominent compared with conventional packed bed. From the results it was found that the metal matrix and porous structure of the catalyst enhanced heat transfer. We anticipate that our research will open a new opportunity for design of new‐generation SNG process.