Designing industrial microwave-assisted reactors is complex: electromagnetics, heat transfer and gas flows interact with each other and take place in heterogeneous media such as volumes filled with solid particles (granules or pellets) crossed by a gas flow (packed beds). For this reason, it is not easy to reliably predict where energy is absorbed and how this translates into temperature profiles that are useful for the process.
In the new article “Modelling selective heating in microwave-heated packed-bed reactors”, published in Scientific Reports (Nature Portfolio), author Carlos González Niño presents a methodological framework for reactor-scale simulation, focusing on systems that use silicon carbide (SiC) susceptors—a configuration of interest for applications such as pyrolysis and other thermochemical conversion processes.
Within the framework of PLASTICE project, the publication proposes a practical workflow to:
- realistically reconstruct how particles are distributed inside the reactor;
- simulate how microwaves propagate through the material and where energy is absorbed;
- predict how temperature evolves over time and identify the most critical zones;
- compare different configurations and operating conditions to improve efficiency and safety, reducing the risk of thermal instability.
A proof-of-concept demonstrates how this approach can support the identification of operating regimes capable of reaching process-relevant temperatures while limiting the risk of thermal instability.
Read the paper here.
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