Multiscale modeling of transport and residence times in nanostructured membranes

Simón E. Albo, Linda J. Broadbelt, Randall Q. Snurr*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

47 Scopus citations

Abstract

Modeling and simulation at different scales were used to study mass transport and residence times of particles in nanostructured membranes with uniform cylindrical pores of 10-150 nm diameter and up to 5 μm long. Analytical equations of the possible mass-transport mechanisms inside the pores were used to determine that diffusion dominates over convection under the conditions of interest for selective oxidation: 700 K and pressure near atmospheric. Molecular dynamics simulations showed that surface diffusion is present only at temperatures < 700 K. Knudsen diffusion was identified as the dominant mechanism. Simulations based on its principles were performed using an ensemble of particles in a boundary-driven simulation cell, providing the average number of hits between a particle and the pore wall and the dependency of the residence time on the pore dimensions. The differences between operating a nanostructured membrane reactor in sweep-gas and pass-through modes were also investigated.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)3679-3687
Number of pages9
JournalAIChE Journal
Volume52
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2006

Keywords

  • Catalysis
  • Computer simulations (MC and MD)
  • Diffusion
  • Multiscale modeling
  • Transport

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biotechnology
  • Environmental Engineering
  • General Chemical Engineering

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