Design optimization of non-uniform triply periodic minimal surface porous catalyst supports for hydrogen production

Triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) structures are promising options as catalyst supports for hydrogen production via methanol reforming due to their excellent specific surface area and highly interconnected pores. In order to further enhance the performance of TPMS porous catalyst supports, this paper proposes a novel flow topology optimization method of TPMS porous structures to obtain the optimal porosity distribution. Three common types of TPMS units, including P, G, and D curved surfaces, were homogenized into porous medium. Based on the flow simulation results of the TPMS porous units, the permeability and reaction rate of the corresponding porous medium for different TPMS units were calculated for equivalence of flow performance and reaction performance. The topology optimization model was established based on the structure of stacked methanol steam reforming (MSR) microreactor, and the optimization process was developed to iteratively calculate the porosity distribution of three TPMS porous supports. Then, the non-uniform TPMS porous supports were reconfigured, and the numerical simulation and experimental tests were conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the optimization method. The experimental results demonstrate that the hydrogen production of the P and G curved surface supports was improved by 7.07 % and 6.73 %, respectively, with the pressure drop reduced by 21.33 % and 14.91 %. Meanwhile, the D curved surface support had a slight improvement of 2.58 % in hydrogen production while maintaining its flow performance. This work presents a novel approach for the design and optimization of high-performance porous catalyst supports.