Spatiotemporal Temperature and Concentration Measurements in a Monolith Reactor

Honeycomb reactor is often used in pollution abatement applications. A typical commercial honeycomb reactor is made of a ceramic material, which is deposited with the high surface area washcoat carrier such as Al2O3. The polluted gases enter the reactor channels and diffuse through this porous structure to the catalytic sites where they are converted to less harmful gases. Stringent environmental regulations have driven the markets toward increasing engine efficiencies and better after-treatment strategies. Achieving high hydrocarbon conversion requires comprehensive information about the thermal and concentration fields inside the monolith reactor. The concentration fields can be studied by a Spatially Resolved Capillary Inlet Mass Spectrometer technique (Spaci-MS). On the other hand, the temperature field is often measured by positioning thermocouples at various locations inside the monolith channel, which can be intrusive to the reactor and not suitable for fast transient processes. To overcome this limitation, I use a new optoelectronic technique called coherent optical frequency domain reflectometry (c-OFDR). This technique enables instant temperature measurement along a fiber with high spatial and temporal resolutions. The objectives of my works are: i) illustrate the capability of the c-OFDR method to measure transient temperature inside the monolith channel, ii) employed c-OFDR method to analyze the veracity of the concentration measurement by the Spaci-MS probe, iii) develop the experimental setup combining the c-OFDR and Spaci-MS techniques to study the dynamic behaviors of the Pt/CeO2/Al2O3 catalyst system under periodic lean-rich operation.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Chemical Engineering

Grantor

University of Houston

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Nguyen, Hoang

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Luss, Dan
• Harold, Michael P.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Jacobson, Allan J.
• Balakotaiah, Vemuri
• Brankovic, Stanko R.

• SpaciMS
• C-OFDR
• Wrong way behavior
• Monolith reactor
• Ceria catalyst

Statement dc:rights

• The author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10657/2125

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uh-ir.tdl.org:10657/2125