(205b) Thermal Analysis of Structured Reactors for Microwave Reaction Engineering

The application of microwaves to enable sustainable manufacturing is rapidly gaining importance as the pathway to process intensification. Under this manufacturing paradigm, sustainably generated photons in the MHz frequency range interact with carefully designed reactors and beds where the electromagnetic energy is converted to thermal energy enabling reaction chemistries. 3D printing is a novel strategy that enables the creation of these structured reactors with a wide array of materials. Thus, to develop this sustainable technology further, a fundamental understanding of thermal transport in these 3D printed structures is of paramount importance.

In this talk, we present insights from our computational investigation into the heating of structured reactors, such as foams, monoliths, and 3D printed structures, with microwaves and compare to our experimental data for the same systems. We will address the role of different length scales – the wavelength of microwaves (~100 mm) to the feature sizes of structured beds (10 mm) and the size of 3D printed pores (~1 mm). Additionally, we will compare structured beds with traditional random packed beds for microwave applications. We will discuss a criterion for materials selection and reactor design stemming analysis of electrical and thermal properties. Finally, we will share our perspective on leveraging these 3D printed reactors for endothermic chemistries.