Catalytically active plate heat exchanger for flexible hydrogen release from perhydro benzyltoluene

In the future energy system, hydrogen is expected to play an important role as a large-scale energy storage option. The liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) technology enables safe and long-term hydrogen storage using the existing tank infrastructure available from the current fossil fuel products. On-demand hydrogen release from LOHC systems followed by its use in fuel cells or combined cycle power plants (CCP) can provide green electricity to the grid in a load flexible manner. However, to serve fast load changes in the grid, highly dynamic LOHC dehydrogenation reactors with fast response times are required. In this study, we demonstrate a catalytic plate reactor (CPR) derived from the design of conventional plate heat exchangers for the continuous and dynamic dehydrogenation of perhydro benzyltoluene. The surface of corrugated heat exchanger plates in the size of 15 × 15 cm has been catalytically activated by spray-coating and laser texturing techniques. These activated plates have been investigated in continuous operation under different stationary reaction conditions (290–340 °C; 2.5–5 bara and 1–3 gH12-BT min−1) achieving technical relevant degrees of dehydrogenation (DoDHs) above 80 %, activities up to 0.27 mgH2 cm−2 min−1 and stable hydrogen release for several hundred hours of operation. Furthermore, the new CPR exhibited short hysteresis times when feed flow or reaction temperature were dynamically changed demonstrating impressively its suitability for on-demand hydrogen provision. Finally, the CPR was successfully operated following the dynamic load profile of a technical relevant CCP scenario.