Heat Transfer and Thermographic Analysis of Catalyst Surface during Multiphase
Phenomena under Spray-Pulsed Conditions for Dehydrogenation of Cyclohexane over Pt
Catalysts
Dehydrogenation of cyclohexane over Pt/alumite and Pt/activated carbon catalysts has been carried out for
hydrogen storage and supply to fuel cell applications. An unsteady state has been created using spray pulsed
injection of cyclohexane over the catalyst surface to facilitate the endothermic reaction to occur efficiently.
Higher temperature of the catalyst surface is more favorable for the reaction, thus the heat transfer phenomena
and temperature profile under alternate wet and dry conditions created using spray pulsed injection becomes
important. IR thermography has been used for monitoring of temperature profile of the catalyst surface
simultaneously with product analysis. The heat flux from the plate-type heater to the catalyst has been estimated
using a rapid temperature recording and thermocouple arrangement. The estimated heat flux under transient
conditions was in the range of 10-15 kW/m2, which equates the requirement for endothermic reactions to
the injection frequency of 0.5 Hz, as used in this study. The analysis of temperature profiles, reaction products
over two different supports namely activated carbon cloth and alumite, reveals that the more conductive
support such as alumite is more suitable for dehydrogenation of cyclohexane