Feasibility of induction heating for the dehydrogenation of liquid organic hydrogen carriers

Electromagnetic induction heating could eliminate the limitations associated with conventional heating methods for endothermic dehydrogenation reactions of liquid organic hydrogen carriers-it may offer faster heating rates, while directing the heat from the core of the inductively active materials to the catalyst and the surrounding fluid. A 5 wt% Pt/gamma-Al2O3 prepared by wet impregnation, was used as a wash-coat to produce an inductively active catalyst in which stainless steel (SS) pellets were used. Different configurations were considered, for comparison: SS pellets alone, Pt/gamma-Al2O3 coated SS pellets, a mixture of 5 wt% Pt/gamma-Al2O3 pellets and SS pellets. An induction heating set-up for the catalytic dehydrogenation of perhydro-benzyltoluene (H12-BT) was built (use was made of an inductive coil covering a glass batch reactor. Increasing the n(Pt)/n(H12-BT) ratio lowered the catalyst productivity (gH(2)gPt(-1)min(-1)) by 7.4%, but enhanced the H12-BT conversion and selectivity towards the product benzyltoluene (H0-BT). Remarkably, there are no by-products in either the liquid or gas phases at high conversion (>90%).