Characterization of foam catalysts as packing for tubular reactors

This study deals with the characterization of catalytically active foams as packing for continuous tubular reactors in terms of reactor performance and overall mass transfer. The tubular reactor was operated in a vertical direction such that gas and liquid entered the reactor in co-current upward flow. The hydrogenation reaction of α-methylstyrene was applied for characterization of the Pd/Al2O3 foam catalysts with a bed length of 50 cm and a diameter of 1.8 cm. Two pore densities for foams namely 30 and 45 PPI were investigated. The foam catalyst showed an overall mass transfer rate that ranged between 0.2 and 14 s−1 for 30 PPI and 0.3–18 s−1 for 45 PPI foam catalyst, whereas the energy dissipation was below 1 Wm−3.