Catalyst shape matters: Influence of catalyst shape on reactor performance in hydrogen release from perhydro benzyltoluene

Rüde T, Strauch D, Szesni N, Wolf M, Wasserscheid P, Auer F (2025)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2025

Journal

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy Elsevier

Book Volume: 191

Article Number: 152174

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2025.152174

Abstract

This study investigates how the geometrical catalyst pellet shape affects the reaction performance in hydrogen release from the liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) compound perhydro benzyltoluene (H12-BT). A catalytic distillation (CD) reactor setup serves as experimental platform for our investigation of different catalyst pellet shapes in H12-BT dehydrogenation. CD facilitates H2 release from H12-BT at lower temperatures enabling heat integration of this endothermic process with low temperature waste heat sources. At 200 mbarabs and temperatures below 250 °C, we achieved complete dehydrogenation of H12-BT for the first time. The CD setup enhances the H12-BT concentration in the catalyst bed, but also introduces challenges such as the risk of flooding. Our research introduces a ribbed-ring catalyst shape for the specific purpose of H12-BT dehydrogenation that significantly outperforms the commercial reference catalyst. The ribbed-ring catalyst achieves a 2.4-fold increase in H2 release rate without additional by-product formation and eliminates the need for a gas channel in the CD thus facilitating scale-up. Liquid phase dehydrogenation (LD) experiments revealed that the superior performance of the ribbed-ring catalyst is mainly due to the increased geometric ratio of outer surface area to pellet volume. Our findings underscore the importance of a tailored catalyst pellet geometry in optimizing fixed-bed reactors for hydrogen release reactions from LOHC systems and other reactions with significant volume expansion.

Involved external institutions

Forschungszentrum Jülich / Research Centre Jülich (FZJ) DE Germany (DE) Clariant Deutschland DE Germany (DE) Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Rüde, T., Strauch, D., Szesni, N., Wolf, M., Wasserscheid, P., & Auer, F. (2025). Catalyst shape matters: Influence of catalyst shape on reactor performance in hydrogen release from perhydro benzyltoluene. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2025.152174

MLA:

Rüde, T., et al. "Catalyst shape matters: Influence of catalyst shape on reactor performance in hydrogen release from perhydro benzyltoluene." International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 191 (2025).

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