The Catalyst Review April 2024 - 11

SPECIAL R&D FEATURE
Electricity-Based Heating in Catalysis -
Status and Perspectives
By Andrzej Stankiewicz and Enrico Tronconi
The views expressed are those of the authors and may not reflect those of The Catalyst Review or TCGR.
During the upcoming 18th
International Congress on Catalysis (ICC) in Lyon, France, a Round Table will be held dedicated to the use of
electricity-based heating in catalytic processes. This article introduces the reader to the topic up for further discussion in Lyon by leading
experts in the field.
Decarbonization of the energy-intensive manufacturing industries is one of the most urgent technological challenges of coming
decennia. It is generally expected that the electricity, which can be generated from various renewable sources (solar, wind, geothermal,
biomass, etc.) will become the widest available, most versatile energy form on Earth. Consequently, the electrification of chemical
processes presents one of the most promising transition paths to low-carbon-footprint, environmentally neutral manufacturing of fuels
and chemicals.
With respect to catalytic processes, electricity
can fulfill two distinct roles. It can either target
the reaction mechanism, usually switching
it from the thermal to the non-thermal one,
based on the electron/charge transfer.
Alternatively, it can be used as a means
of energy supply to the thermally driven
reactions (Stankiewicz and Nigar 2020). The
technologies realizing the latter and shown on
the right-hand side in Figure 1, include the
microwave/radio frequency heating, various
types of plasmas, the induction/hysteresis
heating as well as the Joule (Ohmic) heating.
The microwave/radio frequency (MW/
RF) heating of solid catalysts occurs via
several mechanisms, which include the
dipolar dielectric losses (interaction of local
dipoles within the crystal lattice), conduction
losses (interaction of ions within the lattice)
and magnetic losses. Due to the above
complexity, the response of a solid material
to the microwave/RF heating is often difficult
to predict. Nevertheless, the MW-assisted
catalysis may offer two closely related
advantages: (i) selective heating of the metal
nanoclusters within an otherwise microwaveneutral
catalyst support (Zhang et al. 2001),
and (ii) operation at bulk gas temperatures
lower than the catalyst temperature, thereby
limiting the occurrence of the unwanted,
homogeneous side-reactions (Ramirez et al.
2019). The main challenge of the MW/RF
heating consists in the reactor design and
scale-up to address the limited penetration
depth of the electromagnetic wave and to
achieve macroscopically uniform heating
of the catalyst. To this end, various reactor
concepts have been proposed so far. One of
them, developed at the University of Zaragoza
in collaboration with Danish Technological
Institute, employs the rotation of the
monolithic catalyst inside the cavity (Figure 2)
(Julian et al. 2021).
The Catalyst Review
Figure 1. Electricity-based technologies in catalysis - an overview.
Source: Stankiewicz and Nigar 2020.
Figure 2. MW-assisted catalytic reactor with rotating monolithic catalyst,
developed by the University of Zaragoza and the Danish Technological
Institute. The effect of catalyst rotation on the uniformity of temperature
profiles is shown. Source: Julian et al. 2021.
April 2024
11

The Catalyst Review April 2024

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