Microwave energy inductive fluidized metal particles discharge behavior and its potential utilization in reaction intensification

Microwave-induced metal discharge (MMD) technology offers a novel methodology for efficient gas-phase catalytic reaction due to its unique heating effect, plasma effect and discharge effect. Herein, we successfully used a special kind of uniformly distributed particles with synergistic microwave-induced fluidized-metal discharge (MFD) effect. A lab-scale atmospheric quartz tube fluidized bed reactor was designed. Apparatus like high-speed camera, fiber spectrometer and infrared thermometer were used to record the discharge phenomena. The effects of operating conditions such as gas velocity, microwave power, carrier gas type, and metal type on the discharge behavior were investigated in detail. Subsequently, the MM was applied into the methane dry reform reaction (MDR) with excellent conversion compared with the conventional heating conditions. Gratifyingly, the metal particles can both be the converter of microwave and the catalyst of the reaction. The reported conclusion provides a novel way to intensification the reaction process and utilize microwave energy. (C) 2020 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.