Enhanced Temperature Cycling of Particulate Reactors with Volumetric Induction Heating

The temperature cycling of reactor systems with solid particles is foundational to many processes in the chemicals industry. We present a clean energy platform for gas–solid temperature cycling based on induction heating, in which an open-cell metamaterial baffle loaded with solid particulates is internally heated in a volumetric, efficient, and fast manner. This platform offers flexible configurability, including operation as a fluidized or fixed-bed reactor at different stages of the temperature cycling process, where the baffle prevents bubble coalition during fluidized bed operation. We consider solid sorbents for carbon dioxide capture as a model system, and we demonstrate adsorption in a temperature-stabilized fluidized-bed mode and high-speed regeneration in a fixed-bed mode. Electrified temperature cycling with magnetic induction is scalable, and we anticipate its adaptation to a wide range of chemical conversion and separation processes.