Experimental Analysis of Inductive Heating of Catalytic Beds

Abstract

To reduce CO2 emissions in the chemical industry, already established endothermic reactors should be heated with electrical energy. One promising possibility is inductive heating, in which electrical energy can be transferred to the susceptor (material to be heated). The uniform heating of the susceptor material is necessary for stable operation in chemical reactors and is therefore investigated in this work. For this purpose, a non-reactive test setup was built that enables the investigation of inductive heating of different susceptor materials and measurement of the temperature distribution under defined non-reactive conditions. In the first tests, temperatures of up to 800 °C were reached and an uneven heat input in a bed of stainless-steel rings was observed.