TY - JOUR

T1 - Preparation of Porous Alumina Monoliths Using Indirect 3D Printing

AU - Vdovichenko, Vsevolod A.

AU - Lysikov, Anton I.

AU - Vorobyeva, Ekaterina E.

AU - Polukhin, Aleksandr V.

AU - Barsukov, Andrey N.

AU - Selezneva, Darya A.

AU - Shnayder, Aleksandr V.

AU - Parkhomchuk, Ekaterina V.

PY - 2026

Y1 - 2026

N2 - The synthesis of alumina monoliths is carried out by intrusion of an alumina precursor paste into the channels of a 3D-printed template, followed by drying and calcination of the composite. To obtain durable monoliths, several approaches are applied: (a) conducting an additional phase transition to increase crystallite mobility; (b) slowing the composite drying rate by increasing the amount of slow-boiling plasticizers in the paste and introducing isothermal exposure at low temperatures; and (c) introducing alumina additives with different porosity to reduce composite shrinkage. The first approach yields a strong alumina monolith with a monomodal pore size distribution. The other approaches produce coherent monoliths with multimodal pore size distribution, suitable for comparative catalytic tests in the hydroconversion of vacuum oil residue (T = 400 °C, p(H2) = 10 MPa, LHSV = 0.62 h−1, H2/Feed = 1000 L/L). The monolithic catalyst demonstrates greater activity as a guard catalyst than the reference pellets, as evidenced by a 9% reduction in product density and a 79-fold reduction in kinematic viscosity (vs. 4% and 3-fold for pellets, respectively). This difference is attributed to more efficient external mass transfer in the structured macrocapillary geometry.

AB - The synthesis of alumina monoliths is carried out by intrusion of an alumina precursor paste into the channels of a 3D-printed template, followed by drying and calcination of the composite. To obtain durable monoliths, several approaches are applied: (a) conducting an additional phase transition to increase crystallite mobility; (b) slowing the composite drying rate by increasing the amount of slow-boiling plasticizers in the paste and introducing isothermal exposure at low temperatures; and (c) introducing alumina additives with different porosity to reduce composite shrinkage. The first approach yields a strong alumina monolith with a monomodal pore size distribution. The other approaches produce coherent monoliths with multimodal pore size distribution, suitable for comparative catalytic tests in the hydroconversion of vacuum oil residue (T = 400 °C, p(H2) = 10 MPa, LHSV = 0.62 h−1, H2/Feed = 1000 L/L). The monolithic catalyst demonstrates greater activity as a guard catalyst than the reference pellets, as evidenced by a 9% reduction in product density and a 79-fold reduction in kinematic viscosity (vs. 4% and 3-fold for pellets, respectively). This difference is attributed to more efficient external mass transfer in the structured macrocapillary geometry.

KW - 3D printing

KW - Al2O3

KW - drying

KW - monolith

KW - shaping

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105047406954

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/9d725164-d6e6-3aa6-981a-d039c93ecea8/

U2 - 10.1002/adem.71186

DO - 10.1002/adem.71186

M3 - Article

VL - 28

JO - Advanced Engineering Materials

JF - Advanced Engineering Materials

SN - 1438-1656

IS - 19

ER -