In the last few years, the structured catalytic packing internals for multiphase reactors emerged as an attractive alternative to the conventional random packings for improving reactor performance. Essential parameters for improvement are pressure drop, gas-liquid-solid mass transfer and overall heat transfer. Thus, for reactors with structured packings an improvement of the overall heat transfer as a function of catalyst holdup could be demonstrated. The combination of mass transfer enhancement via structure and highest catalyst capacity via catalyst suspension is a totally new and promising approach, whose success depends on the fundamental understanding of the slurry fluid dynamics and mass transfer in complex geometric structures. In this project, the main focus will be to unveil the physics behind the gas, liquid and solid interaction in three phase flows with a multiscale approach and demonstrate a catalytically functionalized structured reactor components with the objective to devise a compact reactor for decentralized fuel production.

One of the most promising CO₂ capture technologies is the use of a dry regenerable solid sorbent, due to their high capacity, low regeneration cost, long term stability, intrinsic fast kinetics, no need for moisture removal from the gas stream and ease of handling. Solid sorbents like sodium and potassium oxides, zeolites, carbonates, amine-enriched sorbent, and metal organic frameworks are being explored for post-combustion CO₂ capture in the literature. Temperature and pressure swing process facilitates sorbent regeneration following chemical and/or physical adsorption, therefore, local temperature control in the bed and pressure drop in the system is must be understood for process intensification. This research project will deal with the development and/or modification of cost-effective process equipment design that enhanced the sorbent characteristic and as a result increase the sorbent uptake capacity.

Fluid transport through permeable media is present in many areas such as geothermal energy storage, CO₂ storage, groundwater contamination, underground spreading of chemical waste, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and in industrial apparatuses like packed-bed catalytic reactors and packed-bed heat exchangers. Predicting the transport phenomena in the permeable media is immensely challenging due to the complex and non-uniform nature of the flow process and the wide range of spatial (i.e., molecular, pore, continuum scales) and temporal (seconds to years) scales over which the reactions and transport takes place. The heterogeneity in the permeable media plays a significant role in affecting the transport and mixing in the permeable media. This project deals with the development of the improve methods for estimating the transport, dispersion and reactions in the heterogeneous permeable media for both single and multiphase flows.