Properties of ceramic foam catalyst supports: pressure drop

Ceramic foams are prepared as positive images of corresponding plastic structures and exhibit bed porosities as high as 80–90%. This makes them attractive as catalyst supports in processes where high pressure drop in the reactor tube is a problem. In this research, pressure drop relationships were examined for 10, 30, 45 and 65 pores per inch (PPI) ceramic foam samples made from 92.0 and 99.5% α-Al2O3 and from ZrO2 stabilized with Mg, Ca, and La2O3. Pore distributions were determined with imaging analysis, using digital techniques. Pressure drop measurements confirmed that ceramic foams follow the Forscheimer relationship and may be interpreted with the Ergun model, in which the pressure drop is the sum of viscous and inertial terms. The Ergun parameters, α and β, are not constant, α decreases from 8.05 to 2.88 and β increases from 0.0338 to 0.111 as the pore density increases from 10 to 65 PPI. Empirical equations were developed for these parameters in terms of the mean pore size and the bed porosity, and these indicated a dependence on the media properties. Calculated pressure drop from these equations were within 15% of measured values. Up to 15 wt.% γ-Al2O3 washcoat was added to 30 PPI samples of α-Al2O3 foams. Nitrogen BET surface areas increased from about 2 m2 g−1 in the unwashcoated samples to almost 15 m2 g−1 at the highest loading. Both α and β increase linearly with the BET surface area, α by only about 50% but β by a factor of 8. This suggests that roughness introduced by the washcoat plays a dominant role in the turbulent resistance.