With the aid of structured catalysts and reactors, such as monoliths, solid foams, and 3D printed structures, the limitations
of conventional slurry and packed-bed reactors can be surmounted. Multiphase mathematical models were presented
for solid foam structures and the models were verified for the hydrogenation of arabinose, galactose, and xylose to
the corresponding sugar alcohols. High product selectivities were obtained in batch and continuous experiments. Three
kinetic models were considered: a competitive adsorption model, a semi-competitive adsorption model as well as a noncompetitive
adsorption model for sugar monomers and hydrogen. The models gave a good reproduction of the data, but
the semi-competitive adsorption model was the most plausible one because of the size difference between adsorbed sugar
and hydrogen molecules.
DOI: 10.1002/cite.202400087