(242g) Ozone Removal Using New Structure of Matter for High Performance Heterogeneous Catalysis at Short Contact Time and High System Pressures

Pleated Microfibrous Entrapped Catalyst (MFEC) manufactured from 8 μm diameter nickel fibers were tested for ozone decomposition at turbine bleed air conditions to demonstrate the improved catalytic performance over conventional monolith reactors.

Microfibrous entrapped catalysts reactors have demonstrated significant improvement in ozone decomposition reactions at high mass flow rate conditions. In many practical uses, high mass flow applications usually involve high system pressure. Since the physical property of air, including density, viscosity and heterogeneous mass transfer rate, impact the reaction rate and pressure drop, MFEC reactors were tested at high system pressure conditions and showed enhancement in reaction rate and heterogeneous contact efficiency. At the meantime, lower face velocities are sufficient to keep the same mole flow rate and meet the air demand. Pressure drop across the reactor is reduced accordingly, leading to a smaller pressure/volume energy consumption to push air through reactors. Computational fluid dynamics and experimental method were used to determine the pressure drop at lowers face velocities and higher air density in different reactor structures. Overall efficiency, a ration combines reactions rate, mass transfer rate and pressure drop, is enhanced at higher system pressures. Higher system pressures were also found to enhance convective heat transfer properties within MFEC material, which also help with catalytic performance in highly exothermic reactions.