Electrified Dry Reforming of Methane with an additively manufactured SiSiC open cell structure

Due to its capillary diffusion across different sectors, the decarbonization of the chemical industry via process electrification is of key importance for the reduction of CO 2 emissions in hard-to-abate applications. Among different electrification strategies, Joule-heated structured catalysts enable the design of compact and intensified reactors with high thermal efficiency, allowing to effectively valorise distributed sources of CH 4 and CO 2 . In this work we propose the first attempt of applying Binder Jetted SiSiC POCS as heating element in a directly Joule heated packed POCS reactor with a Rh-based pellet catalyst. Dry Reforming of Methane was used as benchmark reaction to validate the application of this material in electrified chemical reactors. Equilibrium conversion was achieved in the temperature range 670–730 °C at GHSV = 5000 NL/kg cat /h with an electric power input up to 498 W and thermal efficiencies higher than 50%. Axial temperature profiles and outlet product distributions were measured and successfully compared to simulations from a 2D reactor model. Calculations also highlighted an appreciable correspondence between the measured electric resistance (0.09 Ω) and the simulated one (0.12 Ω) based on measures from an independent characterization campaign.