Abstract

The reaction-diffusion process in the hierarchically structured porous catalyst particle is investigated using the pore network model. A self-developed scheme is presented to generate the hierarchical pore network with a fairly low computational cost. The results were presented in the framework of a parametric sweep o f the macroporosity, the nanoporosity, the pore interconnections, and the pore size ratio, as well as the pore Damköhler number to understand the effect of different structures on the particle performance. Results showed that the benefits of the hierarchically creates from the existence of macropores inside the nanoporous network as well as their interconnections. Effect of different pore system interconnections investigated using 3D model. It was also shown that the non-physical connectivity in the 2D case is unable to describe the 3D geometries quantitatively, but may present some qualitative trends.