Development of electrified catalytic bed – e-FIXEDBED

The e-Fixed Bed project aims to develop a new concept of catalytic electrified reactor by carrying out in-situ heating of a fixed bed by passing an electric current directly through the bed. Currently, the concept of Joule effect heating has been studied for 5 years either by passing current through the external tube of the bed, or in-situ using an internal conductor structured like open porosity foams for mainly endothermic catalytic reactions. Although the concept has been demonstrated, the use of foams as a catalyst support remains very restrictive because a coating is required to deposit the active phase; and above all the quantity of catalyst per unit volume remains low which leads to more limited volumetric productivity compared to a traditional fixed bed even considering the contributions of foams on external diffusional limitations for example. The project will address the issues of material constituting the bed with biochar-based supports as a starting point; the problem of the solid-solid contact point and the circulation of electric current; heat transfer performance; an application with the RWGS reaction and dry reforming, and finally issues related to the safety of this electrified process, scale-up and technico-economic aspects addressed in a preliminary manner.