Analysis of catalytic reaction systems under microwaves to save energy

Effects of microwaves on catalytic reaction systems are analyzed theoretically in this work. Use of microwaves is encouraged to save energy. The effects of microwave heating are analyzed theoretically by assuming that the catalyst pellet is homogeneous. The temperature and concentration profiles within the catalyst pellet were obtained by numerical simulations for the cases of microwave heating and conventional heating. In the modeling the catalyst pellet is regarded as a continuum. When a chemical reaction was conducted in a heterogeneous medium with microwave heating, the reaction rate and the yield were found to be increased compared to conventional heating under the same reaction conditions. This is due to hot spots generated by selective heating of the catalyst pellet, resulting in an increased reaction rate.