Influence of the macropore structure on heat and mass transfer inside catalytic washcoats

The performance of catalytic coated monolith reactors, technically used in the reduction of pollutants and greenhouse gases, is strongly limited by heat and mass transport within the porous washcoat. Spatially resolved multiscale modelling improves the understanding of the processes inside the reactor and allows to optimize the catalyst design. In this contribution an approach to model the fluid flow inside an overflowed macroscopic pore structure coupled with transport and reaction within the mesoporous catalyst is presented. The simulations are used to study the impact of the macroscopic pore structure on transport phenomena and catalytic reaction.