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Nature-Inspired Optimization of Transport in Porous Media

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Diffusive Spreading in Nature, Technology and Society

Abstract

Materials combining pore sizes of different length scales are highly important for catalysis and separation processes, where optimization of adsorption and transport properties is required. Nature can be an excellent guide to rational design, as it is full of such “hierarchical” structures that are intrinsically scaling, efficient and robust. In technology, as well as in nature, the performance of the transport systems is significantly affected by their structure over different length scales, which provides abundant room to optimize transport through manipulating the multiscale structure, such as transport channel size and distribution. Following this avenue, the chapter discusses a nature-inspired (chemical) engineering (NICE) approach to optimize mass transport for catalytic systems employing porous media, with particular emphasis on the optimization of porous catalysts and proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, University College London, London, WC1E 7JE, UK

    Marc-Olivier Coppens

  2. State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China

    Guanghua Ye

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  1. Marc-Olivier Coppens
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  2. Guanghua Ye
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Correspondence to Marc-Olivier Coppens .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen Institut für Theoretische Physik, Gießen, Germany

    Armin Bunde

  2. Inst. für Physikalische Chemie und Elektrochemie, Leibniz-Universität Hannover, Hannover, Germany

    Jürgen Caro

  3. Institut für Experimentalphysik I, Universität Leipzig Institut für Experimentalphysik I, Leipzig, Germany

    Jörg Kärger

  4. Inst. für Festkörperphysik, Universität Wien, Wien, Austria

    Gero Vogl

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Coppens, MO., Ye, G. (2018). Nature-Inspired Optimization of Transport in Porous Media. In: Bunde, A., Caro, J., Kärger, J., Vogl, G. (eds) Diffusive Spreading in Nature, Technology and Society. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67798-9_11

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