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Catalysts
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Catalysis by Unconventional Heating
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Catalysis by Unconventional Heating

A special issue of Catalysts (ISSN 2073-4344). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Catalysis".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2022) | Viewed by 4025

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Gianluca Landi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Sciences and Technologies for Sustainable Energy and Mobility—CNR P.le Tecchio 80, 80125 Naples, Italy
Interests: development of structured multi-functional and hybrid catalytic reactors; hydrogen/syngas production (steam/dry/tri- reforming, partial oxidation, CO2/H2O solar thermochemical splitting); catalytic upgrading of by-products and/or waste streams (glycerol, waste organic solvents); environmental catalysis (deNOx, DPF, VOC, CH4 abatement); hydrogen purification for fuel cells (CO-PROX); high pressure catalytic combustion
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Many reactions require external heating in order to be carried out due to process endothermicity and/or reaction conditions avoiding self-sustained thermal management. Moreover, processes characterised by frequent start-ups and shut-downs require thermal energy during transient operations.

Historically, energy demand was satisfied by external (or internal) combustion of sacrificial fuels, in particular fossil fuels. Due to the increasing attention on environmental issues, researchers have intensified their efforts in order to develop more efficient and more environmentally friendly heating systems, and some practical applications have been established.

In recent years, the growing interest in renewable sources has prompted the development of unconventional heating systems not based on the chemical conversion of fuels. In this context, direct conversion of solar energy and “green” electric power into thermal power represents a hot topic.

Solar energy can be converted into thermal power by concentration in concentrated solar plant (CSP) or in photo-thermal systems. In both cases, the features of the catalytic materials in terms of their interaction with sunlight, intrinsic activity/selectivity, durability and  thermal stability (especially for high temperature processes) are obviously crucial.

The application of electric power as a thermal source is also interesting. Electricity can be converted in radio- or micro-waves; these waves can be used for direct heating of proper materials; alternatively, suitable materials can be directly used as electric resistances and heated by the Joule effect. In any event, properties of the catalytic materials such as magnetic properties, interaction with (radio/micro)-waves, dielectric constant, electric resistance, and thermal conductivity have become important as well as the classical catalytic features (activity/selectivity, durability, etc.).

Interestingly, in addition to the application of renewable energy, the use of the aforementioned unconventional heating systems can also allow higher energy efficiency thanks to a more homogeneous and faster distribution of the heat within the reactor volume. This concept has been applied not only to chemical processes but also to catalysts preparation, ensuring uniform, fast, efficient and repeatable preparation methods.

This Special Issue will be focused on recent advances on catalyst preparations and catalytic processes using unconventional heating systems. A special emphasis will be placed on the synthesis and characterization of novel catalysts and their application in green processes. Both fundamental and applicative challenges will be highlighted. Authors with expertise in these topics are cordially invited to submit their manuscripts to this Special Issue of the journal Catalysts. Significant original papers and review articles, from both academia and industry, are welcome.

Dr. Gianluca Landi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Catalysts is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Microwave heating
  • Joule heating
  • Inductive heating
  • Solar heating
  • Photo-thermal processes
  • Thermochemical cycles
  • Structured conductive catalytic reactors
  • Magnetic nanoparticles
  • Power-to-X
  • Solar-to-X
  • Green chemistry/processes.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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21 pages, 18223 KiB  
Article
Thermochemical Properties of High Entropy Oxides Used as Redox-Active Materials in Two-Step Solar Fuel Production Cycles
by Alex Le Gal, Marielle Vallès, Anne Julbe and Stéphane Abanades
Catalysts 2022, 12(10), 1116; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal12101116 - 26 Sep 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1865
Abstract
The main challenges and obstacles to the development of hydrogen/carbon monoxide production from the splitting of water/carbon dioxide through two-step solar thermochemical cycles are strongly related to material concerns. Ineed, ceria is the main benchmark redox material used in such processes because it [...] Read more.
The main challenges and obstacles to the development of hydrogen/carbon monoxide production from the splitting of water/carbon dioxide through two-step solar thermochemical cycles are strongly related to material concerns. Ineed, ceria is the main benchmark redox material used in such processes because it provides very good oxidation reaction kinetics, reactions reversibility and thermal cycling stability. This is at the expense of a low reduction yield (non-stoichiometry δ in CeO2-δ) at relatively high temperatures (≥1400 °C), which requires operation at low oxygen partial pressures during the reduction step. Hence, the specific fuel output per mass of redox material, i.e., the amount of H2/CO produced per cycle, remains low, thereby limiting the overall solar-to-fuel conversion efficiency. Perovskites offer larger amounts of fuel produced per cycle but the reaction kinetics are slow. This study addresses the thermochemical investigation of a new class of metal oxides, namely high entropy oxides (HEOs), with the aim of improving the specific amount of fuel generated per cycle with good kinetic rates. Different formulations of high entropy oxides were investigated and compared using thermogravimetric analysis to evaluate their redox activity and ability to split CO2 during thermochemical cycles. Among the different formulations tested, five HEOs yielded CO with a maximum specific fuel output of 154 µmol/g per cycle. These materials’ performances exceeded the production yields of ceria under similar conditions but are still far from the production yields reached with lanthanum–manganese perovskites. This new class of materials, however, opens a wide path for research into new formulations of redox-active catalysts comparing favorably with the ceria redox performance for solar thermochemical synthetic fuel production. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Catalysis by Unconventional Heating)
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16 pages, 3218 KiB  
Article
Microwave-Assisted CO Oxidation over Perovskites as a Model Reaction for Exhaust Aftertreatment—A Critical Assessment of Opportunities and Challenges
by Daniel Röhrens, Ahed Abouserie, Bangfen Wang, Greta Haselmann and Ulrich Simon
Catalysts 2022, 12(7), 802; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal12070802 - 21 Jul 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1744
Abstract
We introduce a microwave (MW)-assisted heterogeneous catalytical setup, which we carefully examined for its thermal and performance characteristics. Although MW-assisted heterogeneous catalysis has been widely explored in the past, there is still need for attention towards the specific experimental details, which may complicate [...] Read more.
We introduce a microwave (MW)-assisted heterogeneous catalytical setup, which we carefully examined for its thermal and performance characteristics. Although MW-assisted heterogeneous catalysis has been widely explored in the past, there is still need for attention towards the specific experimental details, which may complicate the interpretation of results and comparability in general. In this study we discuss technical and material related factors influencing the obtained data from MW-assisted heterogeneous catalysis, specifically in regards to the oxidation of carbon monoxide over a selected perovskite catalyst, which shall serve as a model reaction for exhaust gas aftertreatment. A high degree of comparability between different experiments, both in terms of setup and the catalysts, is necessary to draw conclusions regarding this promising technology. Despite significant interest from both fundamental and applied research, many questions and controversies still remain and are discussed in this study. A series of deciding parameters is presented and the influence on the data is discussed. To control these parameters is both a challenge but also an opportunity to gain advanced insight into MW-assisted catalysis and to develop new materials and processes. The results and discussion are based upon experiments conducted in a monomode MW-assisted catalysis system employing powdered solid-state perovskite oxides in a fixed bed reactor. The discussion covers critical aspects concerning the determination of the actual catalyst temperature, the homogeneity of the thermal distribution, time, and local temperature relaxation (i.e., thermal runaway effects and hotspot formation), particle size effects, gas flow considerations, and system design. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Catalysis by Unconventional Heating)
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