The potential for the use of additive manufacturing (‘3D printing’) to fabricate finely controlled mesostructures presents new opportunities for chemical engineers to refresh their approach to the design of unit operations involving porous beds. Having control over the size, shape, position and orientation of every element within a porous bed, along with the growing availability of materials that can be printed and functionalised, means that we no longer have to rely upon random packing of individual particles to achieve intimate fluid–solid contact. New, fresh approaches to the design of not only the solid-phase but also the fluid-phase geometries within a porous bed are now possible, offering the opportunity to increase process efficiency and to customise porous beds for particular applications. This paper outlines some of the opportunities and challenges presented to what, until now, has been considered to be a relatively mature area of chemical engineering science and design, by the rapidly emerging area of additive manufacturing.

利用增材制造（“ 3D打印”）制造精细控制的介孔结构的潜力为化学工程师提供了新的机会，使他们可以更新他们的方法来设计涉及多孔床的单元操作。对多孔床中每个元件的尺寸，形状，位置和方向进行控制，以及可以进行印刷和功能化的材料的可用性不断增加，这意味着我们不再需要依靠单个颗粒的随机堆积来实现紧密贴合固液接触。现在有可能采用新颖的新方法来设计多孔床中的固相和流体几何形状，这为提高工艺效率和为特殊应用定制多孔床提供了机会。