Pure copper extrusion additive manufacturing of lattice structures for enabling enhanced thermal efficiency in hydrogen production

The high geometrical complexity allowed by Additive Manufacturing (AM) of pure copper can support the development of more efficient catalytic supports that can enable the design of efficient reactors for key processes for energy transition, i.e., hydrogen production with methane steam reforming or CO2 conversion to synthetic methane, thanks to the enhanced thermal conductivity of the catalytic support. Low relative density lattice geometries with open cell copper geometries can be adopted as catalyst supports in the new generation chemical reactors to improve the heat transfer. This work presents a manufacturability study about pure copper lattice filters produced via metal Extrusion AM i.e., via feedstock 3D printing and sintering. The results show that feasible parts design can be reached and produced and that heat-exchange performances can be increased with respect to conventional supports, as confirmed by lab-scale heat transfer tests. A specific metrological assessment based on CTscan data is implemented on the printed parts to qualify them and to ensure a good thermal coupling between the printed filters and the heat exchanger main tube elements.