Metamaterial reactors for electrified thermochemistry

Heavy industry is one of the most challenging sectors of the economy to decarbonize due in part to the dominant role of fossil fuels as an energy source for producing high grade heat. To this end, the electrification of thermochemical processes with clean electricity has great potential as both an immediate and long-term solution towards the scalable decarbonization of chemical production. In this talk, I will discuss new paradigms in thermochemical reactor design in which the reactors are volumetrically heated using high frequency magnetic induction. I will first discuss metamaterial reactors in which a volumetric open-cell lattice baffle is designed and inductively heated using a helical magnetic coil. The baffle simultaneously serves as a heating susceptor and support for catalyst impregnation. The baffle layout and power electronics are co-designed to ensure the heating profile is volumetric and heating efficiencies are maximized. I will then discuss a new class of resonant metamaterial reactors in which the reactor is a volumetric magnetic resonator. When inductively heated at resonance, the resonant reactor coupling efficiency is near unity and is nearly independently of reactor and coil geometry. In addition, an individual Swiss roll structure does not get heated at off-resonant frequencies, meaning that Swiss roll structures specified to resonate at different frequencies can be independently addressed and heated via frequency multiplexing.