Research Information System
Chemical Engineering Journal, vol.512, 2025 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
Microwave-heated carbon-coated monolithic reactor stands out instead of powder-based conventional heated systems to create more efficient, compact, and environmentally friendly process intensification methods. With this aim, the production of hydrogen-rich gas as an energy carrier by steam reforming of ethanol on nickel-impregnated carbon-coated monolith was investigated in conventional and microwave-heated systems. The cordierite monolith with a square channel size of 0.9 mm was coated with carbon by a dip-coating technique using sugar to make it dielectric. The carbon-coated monolith is a macroporous material with an average pore diameter of 31.7 µm. By loading nickel (10 wt%) into the carbon-coated monolith support, Ni particles were located in the macropores of support between 1 µm & 10 µm, resulting in an increase in the average pore diameter of the Ni-CCM catalyst to 66.5 µm. Ethanol steam reforming catalytic activity tests were performed in both reactor systems at a temperature range of 400 °C-600 °C. The 2 kW mono-mode microwave system showed superior performance in terms of hydrogen yield and purity compared to the conventional system. In the microwave-heated system, the hydrogen yield at 400 °C increased by 1.75 times compared to the hydrogen yield in the conventional system. The advantages of the monolithic system increased the catalytic activity together with the direct, volumetric feature of the microwave system. The rate of the Bouduard reaction was minimized in the microwave-heated system by the volumetric heating and formation of the hot-spots, resulting in less coke formation at 500 °C and 600 °C compared to the conventional system.