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Structured Glass-Fiber
Catalysts
Structured Glass-­Fiber
Catalysts

Authored by
Andrey Zagoruiko and Sergey Lopatin
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
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Boca Raton, FL 33487–2742
© 2020 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
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No claim to original U.S. Government works
Printed on acid-­free paper
International Standard Book Number-­13 978-­0-­367-­25385-­1 (Hardback)
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Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data

Names: Zagoruiko, Andrey, author. | Lopatin, Sergey I., author. Title: Structured glass-
fiber ­catalysts / authored by Andrey Zagoruiko and Sergey Lopatin.
Description: First edition. | Boca Raton, FL : CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group, 2020. |
­Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019033397 | ISBN 9780367253851 (hardback ; acid-free paper) |
ISBN 9780429317569 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Catalysts—Materials. | Glass fibers.
Classification: LCC TP159.C3 Z34 2020 | DDC 660/.2995—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019033397

Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at

www.taylorandfrancis.com
and the CRC Press Web site at
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 Dedication

Andrey Zagoruiko with love and

gratitude devotes this work to
his wife Rumyana,
his parents Nickolay and Valentina,
his sister Galina,
his children Maria, Nickolay,
Dmitry and Ksenia.
Sergey Lopatin with love and
gratitude devotes this work to
his wife Olga,
his father Alexey,
his children Olga and Alexey.
Contents
Preface����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xi
Acknowledgments�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� xiii
About the Authors���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� xv

Chapter 1 Current State of Research and Development in the

Field of Catalysts With Various Shapes and Their
Practical Application���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1
1.1. Introduction�������������������������������������������������������������������������������1
1.1. Traditional Catalyst Shapes������������������������������������������������������� 2
1.2. Fixed Beds of Granular Catalysts���������������������������������������������2
1.3. Monolith Catalysts���������������������������������������������������������������������4
1.4. Catalysts With Foam Supports��������������������������������������������������5
1.5. Catalysts With Flexible Metal Supports������������������������������������6
References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������8

Chapter 2 Glass-­Fiber Catalysts�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 11

2.1. General Description����������������������������������������������������������������� 11
2.2. Synthesis of Glass-­Fiber Catalysts������������������������������������������ 12
2.3. Platinum Catalyst IC-­12-­S111�������������������������������������������������� 14
2.4. Copper-­Chromite GFC for the Deep Oxidation of
Organic Compounds����������������������������������������������������������������20
2.5. Vanadia and Iron Oxide Catalysts for the Oxidation
of Hydrogen Sulfide�����������������������������������������������������������������28
2.6. Multilayer Composite Material With the Ternary
Layer of Nanofibrous Carbon��������������������������������������������������34
2.7. Conclusion������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 38
References������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������39

Chapter 3 Arrangement of the Beds of the Glass-­Fiber Catalysts���������������������� 47

3.1. Structuring of the Microfibrous Catalysts������������������������������� 47
3.2. GFC Packing With the Propagative Flow of
Reaction Fluid������������������������������������������������������������������������� 49
3.3. GFC Packing With the Gliding Flow or Reaction
Media��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 51
3.3.1. Cylindrical Cartridges����������������������������������������������� 51
3.3.2. Prismatic Cartridges�������������������������������������������������� 53
3.3.3. Reinforced Cartridges����������������������������������������������� 56
3.4. Lemniscate GFCs�������������������������������������������������������������������� 57
References������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������59

vii
viii Contents

Chapter 4 Experimental Investigation of Pressure Drop and Mass

Transfer in GFC Packing�������������������������������������������������������������������� 63
4.1. The Scope and Properties of the Research Objects���������������� 63
4.4.1. Experimental GFC Cartridges With the
Corrugated Metal Mesh Structuring
Elements��������������������������������������������������������������������64
4.1.2. GFC Beds With the Lemniscate Structures�������������� 68
4.1.3. GFC Cartridges With the Flat Mesh
Structuring Elements������������������������������������������������� 68
4.1.4. Reference Catalysts��������������������������������������������������� 71
4.2. Pressure Drop in GFC Cartridges������������������������������������������� 74
4.2.1. Experimental Technique�������������������������������������������� 74
4.2.2. Experimental Results������������������������������������������������ 75
4.2.3. Partial Anisotropy of GFC Cartridges���������������������� 78
4.3. Investigation of Mass Transfer in GFC-­Based
Cartridges��������������������������������������������������������������������������������80
4.3.1. Experimental Technique��������������������������������������������80
4.3.2. Experimental Results������������������������������������������������ 82
4.3.3. Intrinsic Kinetics of the Toluene Oxidation
Pt/GFCs��������������������������������������������������������������������� 89
4.3.4. Intra-­Thread Diffusion Limitations��������������������������� 91
4.3.5. On the Intra-­Fiber Mass Transfer������������������������������92
4.3.6. External Diffusion Limitations in the
GFC Cartridges��������������������������������������������������������� 95
4.3.7. Verification of the Mass Transfer Limitation
Model����������������������������������������������������������������������� 100
4.4. Conclusion����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 102
References����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������103

Chapter 5 Development and Application of Commercial and

Pilot-­Scale GFC-­Based Processes���������������������������������������������������� 105
5.1. GFC-­Based Processes for the Abatement of Toxic
Organic Compounds in Waste Gases������������������������������������ 105
5.1.1. Process for VOC Deep Oxidation in the
Waste Gases of a Synthetic Rubber Plant���������������� 105
5.1.2. Process for the Purification and Cooling
of the Exhausts From a Stationary Diesel
Power Plant�������������������������������������������������������������� 109
5.2. GFC-­Based Processes of Environmentally Safe
Combustion of Fuels�������������������������������������������������������������� 117
5.2.1. Combustion of Solid Fuels in the Fluidized
Beds of the Dispersed Heat Carrier Using
Reinforced GFC Cartridges������������������������������������� 117
5.2.2. Catalytic Air Heaters on the Base of GFCs������������ 119
Contents ix

5.3. Sulfur Dioxide Oxidation Processes at

Pt-­Containing GFCs�������������������������������������������������������������� 121
5.3.1. Processes of SO2 Oxidation in Sulfuric
Acid Production������������������������������������������������������� 122
5.3.2. Reverse-­Flow Process With the Additional
GFC Beds for Smelter Gas Processing,
Which Contains CO and SO2���������������������������������� 124
5.3.3. Conditioning of Flue Gases from
Coal-­Fired Power Plants������������������������������������������ 130
References����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������135
Conclusions����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 139
Index....................................................................................................................... 141
Preface
The development of novel catalytic processes or efficiency improvements of existing
ones is an important task, having a high practical value in such areas as chemistry,
petrochemistry, oil processing, environmental protection, and in particular in the
abatement of toxic atmospheric pollutants from automobile transport and industrial
and energy manufacturing facilities.
One of the most promising methods for the solution of this task is the develop-
ment of processes on the base of catalysts with a new geometric shape, which are
characterized by higher efficiency of heat and mass transfer, thus providing for the
maximum use of the catalytic potential of the catalysts’ active components.
The breakthrough in this area can be achieved owing to the application of novel
catalysts on the base of glass-­fiber supports. The most important distinction between
glass-­fiber catalysts (GFCs) and traditional catalysts is their specific geometric struc-
ture, high mechanical strength, and flexibility, opening up unique possibilities for
the creation of new types of differently shaped structured beds with reduced pres-
sure drop and improved heat and mass transfer. This, in turn, makes it possible to
create new designs of catalytic reactors.
At the same time, the specificity of such catalysts raises certain problems with
regard to their practical application. In particular, until now, the various packings of
microfibrous catalysts have not yet been studied fully enough in regard to the quan-
titative description of heat and mass transfer processes, and it significantly compli-
cates the scale up and optimization of GFC-­based reactors. In many cases, we may
face practical difficulties in incorporating GFCs into existing reactors, which were
designed to use the conventional catalysts’ shapes (pellets or monoliths).
The current text is dedicated to the issues of the synthesis and investigation of
GFCs, as well as to development of the engineering basis for the commercial cata-
lytic processes applying these catalysts.

xi
Acknowledgments
The authors consider it their honor to express their gratitude to all their colleagues
and friends, without whom working on this paper would be impossible:

Dr. Pavel Mikenin, Danil Pisarev, Dmitry Baranov, Sergey Zazhigalov, Dr. Sergey
Vanag, Prof. Eugene Paukshtis, Dr. Tatyana Larina, Dr. Svetlana Cherepanova,
Dr. Svetlana Yashnik, Ilya Pakharukov, Dr. Oleg Klenov, Dr. Sergey Veniaminov,
Dr. Arkadii Ischenko, Nina Rudina, Dr. Nikolay Yazykov, Ksenia Golyashova,
Prof. Vadim Yakovlev (Boreskov Institute of Catalysis), Prof. Pavel Tsyrulnikov,
Dr. (Institute for Hydrocarbon Processing), Dr. Andrey Elyshev (Tyumen State
University), Yulia Kotolevich, Dr. Maxim Popov, Dr. Alexander Bannov, Ulyana
Ovchinnikova (Novosibirsk State Technical University), Dr. Alexander Zykov and
Sergey Anichkov (All-­Russian Thermal Engineering Institute), who directly took
part in the described research.

Prof. Valentin Parmon, Prof. Valerii Kirillov, Dr. Alexander Kulikov, Prof. Gilbert
Froment, Ilya Zolotarskii, Prof. Yurii Matros, Dr Liudmila Bobrova, Dr. Nadezhda
Vernikovskaya, Dr. Grigorii Bunimovich, Prof. Gianpiero Groppi, Prof. Dan
luss, Prof. Anton Maximov, Vera Fadeeva, Igor Kim, Irina Kharina, Dr. Vassily
Kruglyakov, Tamara Yudina, Liubov Poleschuk, Dr. Alexey Suknev, Dr. Viktor
Chumachenko, Dr. Alyona Ovchinnikova, Prof. Alexander Noskov, Dr. Olga Chub,
Sergey Kildyashev, Prof. Sergey Reshetnikov, Valentina Shport—for useful discus-
sions, advice, inspiration, and support.

Vladimir Serbinenko and all team at Sibtransservice Co.; Dr. Yurii Zhukov, Viktor
Glotov, Vassily Yankilevich, Nikolay Proskokov (Byisk Oleum Plant); Alexander
Pateev (Moscow Metro); Dr. Alexander Beskopylnii and Andrey Kovalenko (Volgograd
department of Boreskov Institute of Catalysis); Nayil Gilmutdinov and Ilziya
Nazmieva (Nizhnekamskneftehim Co.)—for active support in the arrangement and
performance of the pilot and semi-­industrial tests of GFCs.

We also address our special thanks to:

Eugenia Bobatkova, who made a cover design and many excellent photographs for
this book; Olga Lopatina for the great editorial work of this book.

xiii
About the Authors

Andrey Zagoruiko Doctor of Technical Science (rehab),

leading researcher in the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis
(Novosibirsk, Russia). Graduated from Moscow Institute of
Fine Chemical Technology. More than 30 years of experi-
ence in the area of mathematical modeling and engineering
of catalytic processes, as well as development of new catalytic
technologies for oil and gas processing, petrochemistry, and
environmental protection. Author of more than 300 scientific
publications, including over 70 patents. Lecturer in Novosibirsk State University
for more than 20 years. A permanent member of the scientific committees of the
highly ranked international ChemReactor and HydroCat conferences. Guest editor
for Chemical Engineering Journal, Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process
Intensification, and Catalysis Today journals. Member of the editorial board of the
Reviews in Chemical Engineering and Catalysis in Industry journals. Laureate of
the Russian Academy of Sciences Award in the name of Valentin Koptyug, gold
medalist of the Russian National Exhibition Center and the Siberian Fair for the
developments in the area of environmental protection technologies.

Sergey Lopatin Engineering Group Head in Boreskov

Institute of Catalysis (Novosibirsk, Russia). Graduated from
Kuzbass Polytechnic Institute. Expert in the area of mass trans-
fer in catalytic structures, engineering of catalytic processes,
development and modeling of catalytic reactors, development
of new catalyst shapes and technologies for their manufac-
turing. Fourteen years of research experience. Scientific and
practical interests include catalytic processes on the base of
microfibrous catalysts for environmental protection, waste recycling, and environ-
mentally friendly combustion of fuel. Author of more than 80 scientific publications,
including over 30 patents.

xv
 1 Current State of Research
and Development in the
Field of Catalysts With
Various Shapes and Their
Practical Application
1.1. INTRODUCTION
Today, catalysts and catalytic technologies are at the root of the modern chemical
industry, oil and gas processing, and the petrochemical industry that produce criti-
cally important products such as basic chemicals, fuel, polymers, fertilizers, etc.
A variety of technologies for environmental protection and utilization of wastes are
also based on catalysts. Catalytic technologies play an increasing role in a new green
energy, as well as in the field of renewable feedstocks and fuel. Nowadays more than
90% of industrial products are manufactured with the use of catalysts; moreover,
they are involved in the production of the most advanced products with the high level
and depth of feedstock processing. The further development of energy production
and energy storage sectors, as well as novel industry in the direction of substantial
increase of feedstock, energy, and environmental efficiency is impossible without
advanced growth of catalytic processes.
The main progress drivers in catalysis can be identified as follows:

• Chemical (in case a new catalytic technology is based on a new reaction or

new reaction routes for target products production)
• Catalytic (based on application of a new catalyst in a known reaction)
• Engineering (based on application of a new engineering approach to perfor-
mance of a known catalytic reaction)

Engineering approaches to create a new catalytic technology are based on the fol-
lowing problems solutions:

• Development of new catalyst shapes and structured catalyst beds (pellets,

monoliths, foams, fabrics, etc.)
• Development of new and optimization of existing configurations of cata-
lytic beds inside reactors (fixed beds, tubular reactors, fluidized and moving
beds, etc.)
• Development of reactors with new methods of energy management (e.g.,
induction heated reactors)
2 Structured Glass-Fiber Catalysts

• Development of catalytic technologies and reactors, combining reaction

and product separation
• Development of new methods of mass and heat exchange processes in cata-
lytic reactors
• Application of dynamic regimes of reaction performance (unsteady-­state
and sorption-­enhanced catalytic processes)

The first and second problems noted are of special interest within the context of the
given work.

1.1. TRADITIONAL CATALYST SHAPES

The solid heterogeneous catalysts are the most widely used type of the catalytic sys-
tems in practice. To reach the catalytic potential of their active component, the latter is
usually supported at the surface of various supports with the developed internal porous
structure and high specific surface area to provide high catalytic efficiency of the mate-
rial. The selection of the support is commonly dictated by the specific requirements of
the target reaction and its performance conditions. Currently, supports on the base of
alumina, silica, activated carbon, and titania prevail in industrial applications.
From an engineering point of view the selection of the optimum catalyst support
is usually focused on the achievement of the maximum stimulation of heat and mass
transfer processes. In addition, the requirements for mechanical strength, thermal
stability (both in terms of long-­term operation stability at elevated temperatures and
resistance to thermal shock), and hydraulic resistance to moving reaction fluid (or
pressure drop) are often applied in the support selection procedure.
Intensification of heat and mass exchange processes can be reached by proper selec-
tion and optimization of the shape of the catalyst particles. Technically, the minimiza-
tion of diffusion resistance requires the smallest possible catalyst particles; however, in
reality the highly dispersed powder catalysts have rather limited application (e.g., fluid-
ized beds, slurry beds), and their use is difficult or even impossible due to technological
problems with the arrangement of catalyst beds and their high pressure drop. Different
types of granulated and structured catalysts are applied to overcome the difficulties.

1.2. FIXED BEDS OF GRANULAR CATALYSTS

Granular catalysts1 are the most traditional and widely used type of catalytic system.
They usually they have a shape of cylinders, balls, rings, and sometimes more com-
plicated shapes (see Figure 1.1).
The typical size of catalyst pellets can vary for different catalytic processes, but
in general it ranges from a few tenths of millimeters up to a few centimeters, with the
most typical range being from 2 to 10 mm. The lower limit in this range is usually
defined by pressure drop requirements, the upper one by requirements on internal
and external diffusional resistance.
Cylinder and spherical pellets are the easiest to produce; however, they are charac-
terized by a rather high pressure drop, as well as the relatively low level of the exter-
nal specific surface and noticeable diffusional resistance in fast catalytic reactions.
Current State of Research and Development 3

FIGURE 1.1 Typical shapes of catalyst pellets.

Source: Photo collage by Eugenia Bobatkova.

These problems can be minimized by the application of the ring-­shaped pellets,

as well as pellets of more complicated shapes2,3 (see Figure 1.1). The fixed beds with
such pellets have higher void fraction (from 0.5 to 0.7 instead of ~0.4 for the beds of
spherical and cylindrical pellets); this results in significant decrease of bed pressure
drop. They are also characterized by a higher external specific surface and a lower
4 Structured Glass-Fiber Catalysts

value of equivalent hydrodynamic diameter (with the same external size of the pel-
lets), and this allows a significant decrease of diffusion resistance. The drawbacks
of such pellets are the high technical complexity of their production and their lower
thermal stability, especially in cases of complex shapes (rings with internal bridges,
multilobes) and thermal shocks.
From the hydrodynamic properties point of view, the fixed beds of granular cata-
lysts have a good ability to turbulize the reaction fluids, even at low fluid velocities,
thereby providing a high intensity of heat and mass transfer.4 These beds are charac-
terized with full hydrodynamic isotropy, that is, the equality of hydraulic resistance
coefficients for fluid movement in any direction inside the bed. The last property,
along with the relatively high bed pressure drop, provides an excellent leveling abil-
ity of fixed granular beds, making it possible to minimize the non-­uniformities of the
flow distribution across the bed volume.
On the other hand, the high pressure drop of the fixed granular beds may become
a significant disadvantage in catalytic reactors with high reaction fluid velocities.

1.3. MONOLITH CATALYSTS
A significant decrease of the catalyst pressure drop can be achieved by the appli-
cation of the structured catalysts, also known as monolith catalysts or honeycomb
blocks.5–8 Such catalysts represent themselves as blocks with a regular system of
straight parallel internal channels (see Figure 1.2).

FIGURE 1.2 Monolith catalysts.

Source: Photo collage by Eugenia Bobatkova.
Current State of Research and Development 5

The size of the channels usually varies in the range of a few tenths of a millimeter
up to a few millimeters; the cross-­section of a channel can be square, rectangle, tri-
angle, polygon, or round. Minimum channel size is defined by pressure drop require-
ments and manufacturing complexity; the maximum size is limited by diffusion
resistance requirements. Externally the monolith may have a shape of a cylinder or
prism with a square, rectangle, or polygon cross-­section. The external shape and size
of catalytic blocks are usually determined by the technological simplicity of their
production and application.
The base of monolith catalyst is typically made of thermo-­stable ceramics, though
metal and carbon supports are also known.
The main advantage of monolith honeycomb catalysts is their extremely low pres-
sure drop, which is important for the performance of the catalytic reactions under
high velocities of fluid movements, for example, during purification of exhaust gases
in combustion engines or flue gases at thermal electric power plants.
From the internal fluid dynamics point of view, monolith blocks with parallel
channels have an absolute spatial anisotropy—the fluid can move inside them only
along the channels; it is impossible to move in any other direction. It makes any
redistribution of the flows between the channels impossible; therefore, the ability to
level the non-­uniformities of the initial flow distribution across the inlet section is
zero. This drawback can be reduced by the application of the monoliths with inter-
channel fluid passages.9 However, such monoliths are hard to produce and are expen-
sive; hence, their practical application is very limited.
Another fluid dynamic problem is the laminar nature of the fluid flows inside the
channels even at high fluid velocities.10 This results in a low efficiency of heat and
mass transfer processes inside the blocks.
Ceramic catalytic monoliths are manufactured by extrusion of the support or
catalytic material with a further possible application of a secondary support and/or
an active component, in all cases followed by thermal treatment. Not every catalytic
material can be successfully extruded, and not every support with the applied active
component can successfully withstand the thermal treatment. This significantly lim-
its the range of the supports and catalytic materials that can be used in the production
of monolith catalysts and the variety of external shapes of the producing monoliths.
Moreover, the ceramic monoliths may have a low mechanical strength and a low
resistance to thermal shocks, which is even more important.

1.4. CATALYSTS WITH FOAM SUPPORTS

The relatively new types of catalysts use metal or ceramic foams as supports.11–15
Such supports are characterized with a regular geometric structure with a well-­
controlled and uniform size of internal channels (see Figure 1.3).
The regular structure of the foam supports ensures their low pressure drop,
as well as possibility of effective redistribution of the reaction flow, making it
possible to improve the uniformity of flow distribution along the catalyst volume.
The possible drawbacks of the systems may include a laminar nature of the inter-
nal fluids in the channels and corresponding limited efficiency of heat and mass
transfer.
6 Structured Glass-Fiber Catalysts

FIGURE 1.3 Structured catalysts on the base of foam supports.

Source: Photo collage by Eugenia Bobatkova.

1.5. CATALYSTS WITH FLEXIBLE METAL SUPPORTS

Attention is also paid to catalysts that use flexible metal ribbons and meshes as the
supports. The combined use of flat and corrugated supports makes it possible to cre-
ate structured catalytic blocks of various shapes16–18 (see Figure 1.4).
The undoubted merit of the metal supports is their flexibility, resulting in high
resistance to a mechanical impact (including vibration) and thermal shock. At the
same time, they have the main advantage of all the structured blocks—low pressure
drop. A high heat conductivity, which is important for catalytic reactions with sig-
nificant heat effects, is also the benefit of the systems.
The supporting of significant amount of active components at the metal surface
itself is impossible in many cases, so the surface is usually modified by the appli-
cation of the external layer of the secondary support, which is then used for depo-
sition of an active component.19–23 This procedure is complicated by the different
thermal expansion coefficients of the primary and secondary supports (e.g., steel
and alumina). In this case, if the temperature changes during catalyst operation,
it can lead to the destruction of the secondary support layer, resulting in catalyst
Current State of Research and Development 7

FIGURE 1.4 Structured blocks on the base of flexible metal supports.

Source: Photo collage by Eugenia Bobatkova.

deactivation down to complete loss of activity. To some extent, this problem can be
solved by the use of aluminum-­containing alloys as a primary support; for example,
in case of fechral alloy it is possible to create a firm film of alumina on the surface,
which can be used as a secondary support or as a substrate for the secondary sup-
port.24 However, the use of such supports is limited by their relatively low mechani-
cal strength and low ability to bear the mechanical processing, such as corrugation.
The use of massive flat ribbons as a support, as with monolith catalysts, will result
in the formation of laminar fluid with a relatively low efficiency of external mass
transfer. Moreover, the flow redistribution between channels will be also missing,
negatively influencing the uniformity of flow distribution in the block volume. These
problems can be overcome by application of the supports in the form of permeable
metal meshes, both flat and corrugated, as well as various structures made of a metal
wire.25–28 These structures, shown in Figure 1.5, have come to be known as wire-­
mesh monoliths.
8 Structured Glass-Fiber Catalysts

FIGURE 1.5 Structured blocks on the base of wire-­mesh metal supports.

Source: Photo collage by Eugenia Bobatkova.

In general, the catalysts on the base of fibrous supports are promising for the
development of novel catalytic structures, provided that the problems with making a
mechanically strong and thermally stable active component coverage at the surface
will be successfully solved.

REFERENCES
1. Boreskov G.K. 1986. Heterogeneous catalysis. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
2. Afandizadeh S., Foumeny E.A. 2001. Design of packed bed reactors: Guides to catalyst
shape, size, and loading selection. Appl Therm Eng. 21: 669–82.
3. Mariani N.J., Mocciaro C., Keegan S.D. et al. 2009. Evaluating the effectiveness factor
from a 1D approximation fitted at high Thiele modulus: Spanning commercial pellet
shapes with linear kinetics. Chem Eng Sci. 64: 2762–6.
4. Aerov M.E., Todes O.M., Narinskii D.A. 1979. Apparatuses with stationary granular
bed: Hydraulic and heat basis of operation. Leningrad: Chemistry.
5. Birtigh G., Parbel H., Sauer H. 1975. US Patent No.3926565. Apparatus for cleaning
exhaust gases.
6. Ridgway S.L. 1965. US Patent No.3211534. Exhaust control.
7. Boger T., Heibel A.K., Sorensen C.M. 2004. Monolithic catalysts for the chemical
industry. Ind Eng Chem Res. 43: 4602–11.
8. Mochida Shigeru, Kojima Masaru, Hijikata Toshihiko. 1983. US Patent No.4396664.
Ceramic honeycomb structural body.
9. Gulati S.T. 1977. US Patent No.4042738. Honeycomb structure with high thermal shock
resistance.
Current State of Research and Development 9

10. Klenov O.P., Pokrovskaya S.A., Chumakova N.A. et al. 2009. Effect of mass transfer on
the reaction rate in a monolithic catalyst with porous walls. Catal Today. 144: 258–64.
11. Pestryakov A.N., Fyodorov A.A., Shurov V.A. 1994. Foam metal catalysts with inter-
mediate support for deep oxidation of hydrocarbons. React Kinet Catal L. 53: 347–52.
12. Richardson J.T., Remue D., Hung J-­K. 2003. Properties of ceramic foam catalyst sup-
ports: Mass and heat transfer. Appl Catal A-­Gen. 250: 319–29.
13. Giani L., Groppi G., Tronconi E. 2005. Mass-­transfer characterization of metallic
foams as supports for structured catalysts. Ind Eng Chem Res. 44: 4993–2.
14. Twigg M.V., Richardson J.T. 2007. Fundamentals and applications of structured ceramic
foam catalysts. Ind Eng Chem Res. 46: 4166–77.
15. Incera Garrido G., Patcas F.C., Lang S. et al. 2008. Mass transfer and pressure drop in
ceramic foams: A description for different pore sizes and porosities. Chem Eng Sci. 63:
5202–17.
16. Fischer F.C. 1933. US Patent No.1932927. Device for converting carbon monoxide.
17. Kirillov V.A., Bobrin A.S., Kuzin N.A. et al. 2004. Compact radial reactor with a
structured porous metal catalyst for the conversion of natural gas to synthesis gas:
Experiment and modeling. Ind Eng Chem Res. 43(16): 4721–31.
18. Sanz O., Echave F.J., Romero-­Sarria F. et al. 2013. Advances in structured and micro-
structured catalytic reactors for hydrogen production. Renewable hydrogen tech-
nologies/ed. by L.M. Gandía, G. Arzamendi, P.M. Diéguez. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Chapter 9: 201–24.
19. Retallick W.B. 1988. US Patent No.4762567. Washcoat for a catalyst support.
20. Fukuhara C., Hyodo R., Yamamoto K. et al. 2013. A novel nickel-­based catalyst for
methane dry reforming: A metal honeycomb-­type catalyst prepared by sol—gel method
and electroless plating. Appl Catal A-­Gen. 468: 18–25.
21. Meille V. 2006. Review on methods to deposit catalysts on structured surfaces. Appl
Catal A- ­Gen. 315: 1–17.
22. Pacheco Benito S., Lefferts L. 2010. The production of a homogeneous and well-­
attached layer of carbon nanofibers on metal foils. Carbon. 48(10): 2862–72.
23. Seijger G.B.F., Palmaro S.G., Krishna K. et al. 2002. In situ preparation of ferrierite
coatings on structured metal supports. Micropor Mesopor Mat. 56(1): 33–45.
24. Sigaeva S., Temerev V.L., Borisov V.A. et al. 2015. Pyrolysis of methane on fechral
resistive catalyst with additions of hydrogen or oxygen to the reaction mixture. Catalysis
in Industry. 7(3): 171–4.
25. Jiang Z., Chung K-­S., Kim G-­R. et al. 2003. Mass transfer characteristics of wire-­mesh
honeycomb reactors. Chem Eng Sci. 58: 1103–11.
26. Sun H., Shu Y., Quan X. et al. 2010. Experimental and modeling study of selective
catalytic reduction of NOx with NH3 over wire mesh honeycomb catalysts. Chem Eng
J. 165: 769–75.
27. Banús E.D., Sanz O., Milt V.G. et al. 2014. Development of a stacked wire-­mesh struc-
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28. Porsin A.V., Kulikov A.V., Rogozhnikov V.N. et al. 2015. Catalytic reactor with metal
gauze catalysts for combustion of liquid fuel. Chem Eng J. 282: 233–40.
 2 Glass-­Fiber Catalysts

2.1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Glass-­fiber catalysts (GFCs) are a revolutionary type of catalytic system that uti-
lize glass microfibers as structured supports (see Figure 2.1). Active components for
these systems are usually selected from a wide range of various metals (Pt, Pd, Rh,
Ir, Ag, Au, Fe, Cr, Co, N, Mn, Pb, Cu, etc.) and/or their oxides, depending on the
specifics of the target application.
These catalysts have been known about for a rather long time,1–9 but active devel-
opment and research on GFCs started only in 1990s in the Institute of Chemical
Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences under the guidance of Professor V.
V. Barelko.10–13 Since the late 1990s, systematic studies of GFCs, mostly based on
the use of the noble metals (Pt, Pd), have been started at the Boreskov Institute of
Catalysis.14–30
It has been shown that GFCs demonstrate high activity and selectivity toward
the target products in a number of reactions; moreover, they also show high resis-
tance to deactivation in various aggressive media.20,27–34 Their major advantage is
an extra-­low (below 0.1% mass) content of the noble metals, ensuring relatively
low cost.
Later, investigations of GFCs were also started at Saint Petersburg University of
Technology and Design in Russia,35,36 the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa,
Israel,37 the Institute for Hydrocarbon Processing in Omsk, Russia,38 the Technische
Universität, Dresden, Germany,39 the North University of China, Taiyuan, China,40
and many other universities and R&D companies worldwide.
Currently, GFCs are considered to be promising catalysts for the numerous reac-
tions, including the following, as well as many others:

• Deep oxidation of CO, hydrocarbons, and organic substances26–32,35–38,40–46

• Deep oxidation of halogen-­organic substances20,34
• Wastewater denitrification47,48
• Oxidation of SO219,24,29,33,49–53
• Selective oxidation of H2S54–59
• Production of synthesis gas60
• Hydrosilation61
• Low-­temperature reduction of NOx62
• Methane chlorination63
• Oxychlorination of light olefins64
• Gas-­phase biocatalysis65
• Photocatalysis66–70
• Selective hydrogenation71–75
12 Structured Glass-Fiber Catalysts

FIGURE 2.1 Glass-­fiber catalyst.

Source: Photo collage by Eugenia Bobatkova.

2.2. SYNTHESIS OF GLASS-­FIBER CATALYSTS

The simplest GFC synthesis method is based on an incipient wetness impregnation
of the initial glass-­fiber materials (fabrics, glass wool, or glass pads) with the solution
of active component precursor, usually followed by drying and thermal treatment.11
Basically, this approach is similar to the synthesis method of conventional catalysts
with traditional supports.
Preliminary procedures such as washing and incineration of the support for the
removal of dirt, dust, and organic lubricants from the surface of glass fibers can be
performed before the impregnation.
Pre-­treatment may also include leaching. In some cases, leaching is required to
remove the alkaline compounds from the glass surface to improve further impregna-
tion.3,6 In other cases, leaching is necessary to make the local density non-­uniformities
Other documents randomly have
different content
The day would come when Rosie Graham, and what Rosie Graham
thought, whether true or otherwise, would matter not at all to Lydia
Raymond.
 XII
Nevertheless, Rosie Graham’s anecdote of the girl who had gone
to Port Said, and her vehement advice to have nothing to do with the
Greek, continued to haunt Lydia’s mind.
Neither had she forgotten Miss Nettleship’s warning, and the sense
that the manageress was watching her with melancholy anxiety
caused her to surmise that Mr. Margoliouth had not yet made good
his assurance of payment.
She refused an invitation to go to the play with him, but was too
anxious that the boarders should continue to look upon her as the
heroine of an exciting love-affair to discourage him altogether,
although she had really made up her mind that she should not care
to be engaged to Margoliouth.
If the first man who had made her acquaintance since she left school
showed so much tendency to make love to her, Lydia shrewdly told
herself, there would certainly be others. She could well afford to wait,
in the certainty of eventually finding a man who would possess such
attractions and advantages as the Greek could not boast.
Meanwhile, Margoliouth made life interesting, and Lydia a subject of
universal observation and discussion.
She was feeling agreeably conscious of this on the Saturday
following her conversation with the manageress, as she came into
the boarding-house in time for the midday meal.
Miss Nettleship was hovering at the foot of the stairs and failed to
return Lydia’s smile.
“He’ll have to go,” she said without preliminary. “I got his cheque,
and the Bank has returned it. You see how it is, dear—a terrible
business. I don’t know whether I shan’t have to call the police in
even now before I get my money. He’s leaving on Monday, and if I’ve
not had the cash down from him, I don’t know what’ll happen, I’m
sure.”
“Oh, Miss Nettleship, how dreadful! I am sorry for you,” said Lydia,
giving expression to the surface emotion of her mind only, from habit
and instinct alike.
“Don’t you have anything more to do with him, dear,” said Miss
Nettleship distractedly. “That Agnes is letting something burn
downstairs. I can smell it as plain as anything. I’ll have to go. Poor
old Agnes! she means well but you quite understand how it is——”
The manageress hastened down the stairs to the basement.
Lydia could not help glancing at her neighbour in the dining-room
with a good deal of anxiety. He seemed quite imperturbable, and
said nothing about his departure.
Lydia, whose opinion of Miss Nettleship’s mentality was not an
exalted one, began to think that Mr. Margoliouth knew quite well that
he could pay his bills before Monday, and had no intention of going
away at all.
Otherwise, why was he not more uneasy? Far from uneasy,
Margoliouth seemed to be livelier than usual, paid Lydia one or two
small compliments with his usual half-condescending, half-sardonic
expression, and asked her if she would come out to tea with him that
afternoon.
Miss Nettleship was on one of her periodical excursions to the
kitchen, and Miss Forster, Mrs. Clarence, and Mrs. Bulteel were
listening with all their ears, and with as detached an expression as
each could contrive to assume.
“Thank you very much, I should like to,” said Lydia demurely.
They went to a newly-opened corner shop in Piccadilly, where a
small orchestra was playing, and little shaded pink lights stood upon
all the tables. The contrast with the foggy December dusk outside
struck pleasantly upon Lydia’s imagination, and she enjoyed herself,
and was talkative and animated.
Margoliouth stared at her with his unwinking black gaze, and when
they had finished tea he left his chair, and came to sit beside her on
the low plush sofa, that had its back to the wall.
“A girl like you shouldn’t go about London alone,” he suddenly
remarked, with a sort of unctuousness. “At least, not until she knows
something about life.”
“Oh, I can take care of myself,” said Lydia hastily.
“But you don’t know the dangers that a young girl of your attraction is
exposed to,” he persisted. “You don’t know what sort of brutes men
can be, do you?”
“No girl need ever be annoyed—unless she wants to be,” quoted
Lydia primly from Aunt Beryl’s wisdom.
“You think so, do you? Now, I wonder if you’ll still say that in three
years’ time. Do you know that you are the sort of woman to make
either a very good saint or a very good sinner?”
The world-old lure was too potent for Lydia’s youth and her vanity.
“Am I?” she said eagerly. “Sometimes I’ve thought that, too.”
The Greek put his hand upon her, slipping his arm through hers in
his favourite manner.
“Tell me about your little self, won’t you?” he said ingratiatingly.
“Always let the other people talk about themselves.”
Oh, inconvenient and ill-timed recollection of Grandpapa’s high,
decisive old voice! So vividly was it forced upon the ear of Lydia’s
unwilling memory that she could almost have believed herself at
Regency Terrace once more. The illusion checked her eager,
irrepressible grasp at the opportunity held out by the foreigner. The
game was spoilt.
“There’s nothing to tell,” she said abruptly, suddenly grown weary.
Grandpapa had said that long stories about oneself always bored
other people, whether or no they politely affected an appearance of
interest.
No doubt it was true.
Lydia knew that she herself was not apt to take any very real
interest, for instance, in Nathalie Palmer’s long letters about her
home, and the parish, and the new experiment of keeping hens at
the vicarage, nor in the many stories, all of them personal, told by
the girls at Elena’s, nor even in the monotonous recital of Miss
Nettleship’s difficulties with her servants.
Why should the Greek be interested in hearing Lydia’s opinion of
Lydia?
She cynically determined that it would not be worth while to put him
to the test.
“Let’s go home,” she said.
Margoliouth raised his eyebrows.
“I suppose that all women are capricious.”
His use of the word “women,” as applied to her nineteen-year-old
self, always insensibly flattered Lydia.
She let him take her back to the Bloomsbury boarding-house in a
hansom, and remained passive, although unresponsive, when he put
his arm round her, and pressed her against him in the narrow
confinement of the cab.
“Dear little girl!” sighed Margoliouth sentimentally, as he reluctantly
released her from his clasp when the cab stopped.
Lydia ran up the steps, agreeably surprised at the instant opening of
the door, and anxious to exchange the raw and foggy atmosphere
outside for the comparative warmth and light of the hall.
The dining-room door also stood open, and as Lydia came in Miss
Forster rushed out upon her.
“I’ve been waiting for you!” she cried effusively. “Come in here, my
dear, won’t you?”
“Into the dining-room?” said Lydia, amazed. “Why, there’s no fire
there! I’m going upstairs.”
“No, no,” said Miss Forster still more urgently, and laying a tightly-
gloved white-kid hand on Lydia’s arm. “There’s someone up there.”
She pointed mysteriously to the ceiling.
Lydia looked up, bewildered, but only saw Miss Nettleship, the gas-
light shining full on her pale, troubled face, hastening down the
stairs. She passed Lydia and Miss Forster unperceiving, and went
straight up to the Greek, who had just closed the street door behind
him.
“Mr. Margoliouth!” she said, in her usual breathless fashion. “You see
how it is—it’s quite all right, I’m sure ... but your wife has come.
She’s in the drawing-room.”
Margoliouth uttered a stifled exclamation, and then went upstairs
without another word.
Miss Forster almost dragged Lydia into the dining-room.
“There! Of course you didn’t know he was married, did you? Neither
did any of us, and I must say I think he’s behaved abominably.”
“But who is she? When did she come?” asked Lydia, still wholly
bewildered at the suddenness of the revelation.
“Sit down, and I’ll tell you all about it.”
Miss Forster settled her ample person in a chair, with a general
expression of undeniable satisfaction.
“Just about half an hour after you’d left the house, I was just
wondering if I should find dear Lady Honoret at home if I ran round—
you know my great friends, Sir Rupert and Lady Honoret. I’m sure
I’ve often mentioned them; they’re quite well-known people—but I
thought, of course, there wouldn’t be a chance of finding them
disengaged—she’s always somewhere—so Mrs. Bulteel and I were
settling down to a nice, cosy time over the fire. Irene had actually
made up quite a good fire, for once. And then the door opened”—
Miss Forster flung open an invisible portal with characteristic energy
—“and in comes Miss Nettleship—and I remember thinking to myself
at the time, in a sort of flash, you know: Miss Nettleship looks pale—
a sort of startled look—it just flashed through my mind. And this
woman was just behind her.”
“What is she like?”
Lydia was conscious of disappointment and humiliation, but she was
principally aware of extreme curiosity.
“Just what you’d expect,” said Miss Forster, with a decisiveness that
somehow mitigated the extremely cryptic nature of the description.
“The moment I saw her and realized who she was—and I’m bound to
say Miss Nettleship spoke her name at once—that moment I said to
myself that she was just what I should have expected her to be.”
Lydia, less eager for details of Miss Forster’s remarkable prescience
than for further information, still looked at her inquiringly.
“Dark, you know,” said Miss Forster. “Very dark—and stout.”
She described a circle of immense and improbable width. “Older
than he is, I should say—without a doubt. And wearing a white veil,
and one of those foreign-looking black hats tilted right over her eyes
—you know the sort of thing. And boots—buttoned boots. With a
check costume—exactly like a foreigner.”
“I suppose she is a foreigner.”
“I spoke in French at once,” said Miss Forster. “It was most awkward,
of course—and I could see that Mrs. Bulteel was completely taken
aback. Not much savoir faire there, between ourselves, is there?
But, of course, as a woman of the world, I spoke up at once, the
moment Miss Nettleship performed the introduction. ‘Comment vous
trouvez-vous, M’dahme?’ I said. Of course, not shaking hands—
simply bowing.”
“What did she say?” Lydia asked breathlessly, as Miss Forster
straightened herself with a little gasp, after a stiff but profound
inclination of her person from the waist downwards.
“She answered in English. She has an accent, of course—doesn’t
speak nearly as well as he does. Something about us knowing her
husband. ‘Do you mean Mr. Margoliouth?’ I said. Naughty of me,
though, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, very,” said Lydia hastily. “But what did she say?”
“Took it quite seriously,” crowed Miss Forster, suddenly convulsed.
“Really, some people have no sense of the ludicrous. I said it for a bit
of mischief, you know. ‘Do you mean Mr. Margoliouth?’ I said—and
she answered me quite solemnly, ‘Yes, of course.’”
Then it really was Margoliouth’s wife. Lydia began to realize the fact
that until now had carried no sort of conviction to her mind.
Margoliouth, a married man, had been making a fool of her before all
these people. Such was the aspect of her case that flashed across
her with sudden, furious indignation.
She perceived that Miss Forster was looking at her with curiosity.
“I didn’t know that he was married at all,” said Lydia calmly.
“No one could have guessed it for a moment, and he never gave us
a hint,” said Miss Forster indignantly. “You won’t mind me saying,
dear, that I wanted to get you in here and tell you quietly before you
went up and found her there, sitting on the sofa as calm as you
please.”
“Thank you,” said Lydia. “But really, you know, it doesn’t matter to me
if Mr. Margoliouth is married. Only I think he ought to have told Miss
Nettleship, and—and all of us.”
“The cad!” cried Miss Forster energetically, and striking the rather
tight lap of her silk dress with a violence that threatened to split the
white-kid glove. “What we women have to put up with, I always say!
Only a man could behave like that, and what can we do to defend
ourselves? Nothing at all. I was telling Sir Rupert Honoret the other
day—those friends of mine who live in Lexham Gardens, you know
—I was telling him what I thought of the whole sex. Oh, I’ve the
courage of my opinions, I know. Men are brutes—there’s no doubt
about it.”
“I suppose he didn’t expect her here?” said Lydia dreamily, still
referring to the Margoliouth ménage.
Miss Forster understood.
“Not he! You saw what a fool he looked when the manageress told
him she was here. She’s come to fetch him away, that’s what it is.
She as good as said so. But they’ll be here till Monday morning, I’m
afraid—the pair of them. Ugh!——” Miss Forster gave a most
realistic shudder. “I don’t know how I shall sit at table with them. Miss
Nettleship has no business to take in people of that sort—she ought
to have made inquiries about the man in the first place, and I shall
tell her so.”
“Oh, no,” said Lydia gently. “Please don’t. She’ll be so upset at the
whole thing already.”
“Very generous!” Miss Forster declared, her hand pressed heavily on
Lydia’s shoulder. “Of course, it’s you one can’t help thinking of—a
young girl like you. Oh, the cad! If I were a man, I’d horsewhip a
fellow like that.”
She indulged in a vigorous illustrative pantomime.
“I shall be all right,” Lydia said quickly—insensibly adopting the most
dignified attitude at her command.
She moved to the door.
“Have some supper sent up to your room, do,” urged Miss Forster.
“I’m sure Irene would get a tray ready, and I’ll bring it up to you
myself. Then you won’t have to come down to the dining-room.”
“Thank you very much, but I’d rather come down.”
Lydia was speaking literal truth, as, with her usual clear-sightedness,
she soon began to realize.
Not only was her curiosity undeniably strong, both to behold the
recent arrival, and to observe Margoliouth’s behaviour in these new
and undoubtedly disconcerting circumstances—but it was slowly
borne in upon her that she could not afford to relinquish the
opportunity of standing in the lime-light with the attention of her
entire audience undeviatingly fixed upon herself.
Her humiliation could be turned into a triumph.
Lydia set her teeth.
She had been very angry with Margoliouth, and was so still—less
because he had deceived her than because the discovery of his
deceit must destroy all her prestige as the youthful recipient of
exclusive attentions. But after all, she could still be the heroine of this
boarding-house drama.
Lydia reflected grimly that there were more ways than one of being a
heroine.
She looked at herself in the glass. Anger and excitement had given
her a colour, and she did not feel at all inclined to cry. She was, in
fact, perfectly aware that she was really not in the least unhappy. But
the people downstairs would think that she was proudly concealing a
broken heart.
Lydia dressed her thick mass of hair very carefully, thrust the high,
carved comb into one side of the great black twist at just the right
angle, and put on a blouse of soft, dark-red silk that suited her
particularly well.
There was a knock at her door.
Lydia went to open it, and saw Miss Nettleship on the threshold.
“Oh, my dear, I am so sorry, and if you want a tray upstairs for this
once, it’ll be quite all right, and I’ll give the girl the order myself. You
aren’t thinking of coming down to-night, are you?”
“Yes, I am,” said Lydia steadily. “It’s very kind of you, but I’d rather
come down just as usual.”
“It’s as you like, of course,” said the manageress in unhappy
accents. “Miss Forster came to me about you—you know what she
is. But I’m so vexed you should have heard all in a minute like, only
you understand how it was, dear, don’t you? And his wife has paid
up the bills, all in cash, and wants to stay over Sunday.”
“There’s the bell,” said Lydia.
“Then I must go, dear—you know how it is. That old Miss Lillicrap is
such a terror with the vegetables. I do feel so vexed about it all—and
your auntie will be upset, won’t she? Are you ready, dear?”
Lydia saw that the kind woman was waiting to accompany her
downstairs to the dining-room, but she had every intention of making
her entrance unescorted.
“I’m not quite ready,” she said coolly. “Please don’t wait—I know you
want to be downstairs.”
The manageress looked bewildered, and as though she felt herself
to have been rebuffed, but she spoke in her usual rather incoherently
good-natured fashion as she hastened down the stairs.
“Just whatever you like, and it’ll be quite all right. I quite understand.
I wish I could wait, dear, but really I daren’t....”
Lydia was very glad that Miss Nettleship dared not wait.
She herself remained upstairs for another full five minutes, although
her remaining preparations were easily completed in one.
At the end of the five minutes she felt sure that all the boarders must
be assembled. Hardly anyone was ever late for a meal, since meals
for most of the women, at any rate, contributed the principal variety
in the day’s occupation.
Nevertheless, Lydia went downstairs very slowly, until the sound of
clattering plates and dishes, broken by occasional outbreaks of
conversation, told her that dinner was in progress.
Then she quickly opened the dining-room door.
They were all there, and they all looked up as she came in.
Her accustomed seat at the far end of the table, next to the Greek,
was empty, but on Margoliouth’s other side sat a strange woman,
whom Lydia was at no pains to identify, even had Miss Forster’s
description not at once returned to her mind. “Very dark—and stout
—and dressed like a foreigner.”
Mrs. Margoliouth was all that.
Lydia saw the room and everyone in it, in a flash, as she closed the
door behind her.
Miss Lillicrap, clutching her knife and fork, almost as though she
were afraid that her food might be snatched from her plate while she
peered across the room with eager, malevolent curiosity—Miss
Nettleship, suddenly silent in the midst of some babbled triviality, and
evidently undecided whether to get up or to remain seated—Mrs.
Bulteel, her sharp gaze fixed upon Lydia and her pinched mouth half
open—Miss Forster, also staring undisguisedly—Mrs. Clarence, with
her foolish, red-rimmed eyes almost starting from her head—the
youth, Hector Bulteel, his mouth still half-full and a tumbler arrested
in mid-career in his hand—his father’s sallow face turned towards
the door, wrinkled with an evident discomfiture.
Mrs. Margoliouth herself had raised a pair of black, hostile-looking
eyes, set in a heavy, pasty face, to fix them upon Lydia.
Irene had stopped her shuffling progress round the table, and turned
her head over her shoulder.
Only Margoliouth remained with his head bent over his plate,
apparently absorbed in the food that he was sedulously cutting up
into small pieces.
In the momentary silence Lydia advanced. Her heart was beating
very quickly, but she was conscious of distinct exhilaration, and she
remembered to tilt her chin a little upward and to walk slowly.
There was the sudden scraping of a chair, and pale, ugly Mr. Bulteel
had sprung forward, and come down the room to meet her.
The unexpected little act of chivalry, which obviously came as a
surprise to himself as to everybody else, nearly startled Lydia out of
her predetermined composure.
She looked up at him and smiled rather tremulously, and he pulled
out her chair for her, and waited until she was seated before
returning to his own place again.
The meal went on, and the atmosphere was electric. Contrary to her
custom, Miss Nettleship made no attempt at introducing the new-
comer, and Margoliouth did not seek to rectify the omission.
He ate silently, his eyes on his plate. Twice Lydia addressed small,
commonplace remarks to him, each time in the midst of a silence,
wherein her voice sounded very clear and steady. He answered
politely but briefly, and the other women at the table exchanged
glances, and one or two of them looked admiringly at Lydia.
It was this consciousness that kept her outwardly composed, for she
found the position far more of an ordeal than she had expected it to
be. She was even aware that, under the table, a certain nervous
trembling that she could not repress was causing her knees to knock
together.
She felt very glad when the meal was over and old Miss Lillicrap—
who always gave the signal for dispersal—had pushed her chair
back, and said venomously:
“Well, I can’t say, ‘Thank you for my good dinner.’ The fowl was
tough, and I didn’t get my fair share of sauce with the pudding.”
“Are we having a rubber to-night?” Miss Forster inquired loudly of no
one in particular, with the evident intention of silencing Miss Lillicrap.
Lydia saw Mrs. Bulteel frown and shake her head, as though in
warning.
Margoliouth, however, had at last looked up.
“I’m not playing to-night,” he said sullenly.
“Doesn’t your wife play Bridge?” Miss Forster inquired rather
maliciously.
“No.”
“You’re tired with your journey perhaps,” piped Mrs. Clarence,
looking inquisitively at the stranger.
Mrs. Margoliouth stared back at her with lack-lustre and rather
contemptuous-looking black eyes.
“What journey?” she said in a thick voice. “I’ve only come up from
Clapham, where we go back on Monday. Our house is at Clapham.
The children are there.”
“The children?” repeated Mrs. Clarence foolishly.
“We have five children,” said Mrs. Margoliouth impassively, but she
cast a fierce glance at her husband as she spoke.
Miss Forster suddenly thrust herself forward, and demonstratively
put her arm round Lydia’s waist.
“I suppose you’re going upstairs to your scribbling, as usual, you
naughty girl?” she inquired affectionately.
“I ought to,” Lydia said, smiling faintly. “It isn’t cold in my room now
that I’ve got a little oil-stove. I got the idea from a girl I went to supper
with the other night, who lives in rooms.”
“How splendid!” said Miss Forster, with loud conviction, her tone and
manner leaving no room for doubt that she was paying a tribute to
something other than the inspiration of the oil-stove.
Lydia smiled again, and went upstairs.
The other boarders were going upstairs too, and as Lydia turned the
corner of the higher flights that led to her own room, she could hear
them on the landing below.
“I do think that girl’s behaving most splendidly!”
Miss Forster’s emphatic superlatives were unmistakable.
“She looks like a sort of queen to-night,” said an awed voice, that
Lydia recognized with surprise as belonging to the usually
inarticulate Hector Bulteel.
She had not missed her effect, then.
Lydia did not write that evening. She went to bed almost at once,
glad of the darkness, and feeling strangely tired. After she was in
bed she even found, to her own surprise, that she was shedding
tears that she could not altogether check at will.
Then, after all, she minded?
Lydia could not analyze her own emotion, and as the strain of the
day relaxed, she quietly cried herself to sleep like a child.
But the eventual analysis of the whole episode, made by Lydia with
characteristic detachment, brought home to her various certainties.
Margoliouth’s defection had hurt her vanity slightly—her heart not at
all.
She could calmly look back upon her brief relations with him as
experience, and therefore to be valued.
But perhaps the conviction that penetrated her mind most strongly,
was that one which she faced with her most unflinching cynicism,
although it would have vexed her to put it into words for any other
human being. No grief or bereavement that her youth was yet able to
conceive of could hurt her sufficiently to discount the lasting and
fundamental satisfaction of the beau rôle that it would bestow upon
her in the view of the onlookers.
 XIII
“Broken heart? Nonsense. People with broken hearts don’t eat
chestnut-pudding like that,” quoth Grandpapa.
Lydia would have preferred to make her own explanations at
Regency Terrace, but Miss Nettleship had already written a long
letter to Aunt Beryl, as Lydia discovered when she reached home on
Christmas Eve.
Aunt Beryl took the affair very seriously, and made Lydia feel slightly
ridiculous.
“Trifling like that with a young girl, and him a married man the whole
of the time!” said Aunt Beryl indignantly.
“It’s all right, auntie,” Lydia made rather impatient answer. “I didn’t
take it seriously, you know.”
“How did he know you weren’t going to? Many a girl has had her
heart broken for less.”
It was then that Grandpapa uttered his unkind allusion to Lydia’s
undoubted appreciation of her favourite chestnut-pudding, made in
honour of her arrival by Aunt Beryl herself.
Lydia knew very well that Grandpapa would have been still more
disagreeable if she had pretended a complete loss of appetite, and
she felt rather indignant that this very absence of affectation should
thus come in for criticism.
Although she had only been away four months, the house seemed
smaller, and the conversation of Aunt Beryl and Uncle George more
restricted. She was not disappointed when her aunt told her that their
Christmas dinner was to be eaten at midday, and that there would be
guests.
“Who do you think is here, actually staying at the ‘Osborne’?” Miss
Raymond inquired.
Lydia was unable to guess.
“Your Aunt Evelyn, with Olive. They’ve been worried about Olive for
quite a time now—she can’t throw off a cold she caught in the
autumn, and, of course, there have been lungs in the Senthoven
family, so they’re a bit uneasy. Aunt Evelyn brought her down here
for a change, and Bob’s coming down for Christmas Day. They keep
him very busy at the office now. Don’t you ever run across him in
town, Lydia?”
“No, never,” said Lydia, with great decision.
She had no wish to meet Bob Senthoven in London, although she
was rather curious to see both her cousins again.
She caught sight of him in church on Christmas morning, where she
decorously sat between Aunt Beryl and Uncle George, in the seats
that had been theirs ever since Lydia could remember.
Bob, who was on the outside, did not look as though he had altered
very much. He was still short and stocky, with hair combed straight
back and plastered close to his head.
Olive, much taller than her brother, was dressed in thick tweed, with
a shirt and tie, and the only concession to her invalidhood that Lydia
could see, was a large and rather mangy-looking yellow fur
incongruously draped across her shoulders.
Mrs. Senthoven’s smaller, slighter figure was completely hidden from
view by her offspring.
As they all met outside the church door, Lydia, in thought, was
instantly carried back to Wimbledon again, and her sixteenth year.
“Hullo, ole gurl!” from Olive.
“Same to you and many of ’em,” briefly from Bob, in reply to
anticipated Christmas greetings.
“We’ll all walk back to the Terrace together, shall we?” suggested
Aunt Beryl, on whose mind Lydia knew that elaborate preparations
for dinner were weighing. “Grandpapa will want to wish you all a
Merry Christmas, I’m sure.”
Aunt Evelyn, not without reason, looked nervous, nor did
Grandpapa’s greeting serve to reassure her.
“Why does little Shamrock bark at you so, my dear?” he inquired of
Olive, with a pointed look at her short skirts. “I’m afraid he doesn’t
like those great boots of yours.”
It was quite evident that Grandpapa’s opinion of the Senthoven
family had undergone no modification.
They sat round the fire lit in the drawing-room in honour of the
occasion, and Aunt Beryl hurried in and out, her face flushed from
the kitchen fire, and hoped that they’d “all brought good appetites.”
“There’s the bell, Lydia! I wonder if you’d go down, dear? I can’t
spare the girl just now, and it’s only Mr. Almond.”
Lydia willingly opened the door to her old friend, and received his
usual, rather precise greeting, together with an old-fashioned
compliment on the roses that London had not succeeded in fading.
She took him up to the drawing-room.
“Greetings of the season, ladies and gentlemen all,” said Mr.
Monteagle Almond, bowing in the doorway.
“Rum old buffer,” said Bob to Lydia, aside.
She smiled rather coldly.
She felt sure that although the Bulteels and Miss Forster—who, after
all, was the friend of Sir Rupert and Lady Honoret—might have
accepted Mr. Almond and his out-of-date gentility, they would never
have approved of Bob and Olive, with their witless, incessant slang.
“Now, then!” said Aunt Beryl, appearing in the doorway divested of
her apron, and with freshly washed hands. “Dinner’s quite ready, if
the company is. George, will you lead the way with Evelyn?—Olive
and Mr. Almond—that’s right—now, Bob, you haven’t forgotten the
way to the dining-room—or, if you have, Lydia will show you—and I’ll
give Grandpapa an arm.”
Aunt Beryl, for once, was excited and loquacious. Giving Grandpapa
an arm, however, was a lengthy process, so that she missed the
appreciative exclamations with which each couple duly honoured the
festive appearance of the dining-room.
“How bright it looks!” cried Aunt Evelyn. “Now, doesn’t it look bright?”
“Most seasonable, I declare,” said Mr. Almond, rubbing his hands
together.
“Oh, golly! crackers!”
“My eye, look at the mistletoe!” said Bob, and nudged Lydia with his
elbow. Lydia immediately affected to ignore the huge bunches of
mistletoe pendant in the window and over the table, and admired
instead the holly decorating each place.
“A very curious old institution, mistletoe,” said Uncle George, and
seemed disappointed that nobody pursued the subject with a request
for further information.
When they were all seated, and Grandpapa had leant heavily upon
his corner of the table, and found a piece of holly beneath his hand,
and vigorously flung it into the enormous fire blazing just behind his
chair, Uncle George said again:
“Probably you all know the old song of the ‘Mistletoe Bough,’ but I
wonder whether anyone can tell me the origin——”
“We’ll come to the songs later on, my boy,” said Grandpapa briskly.
“Get on with the carving. Have you good appetites, young ladies?”
Olive only giggled, but Lydia smiled and nodded, and said, “Yes,
Grandpapa, very good.”
“You needn’t nod your head like a mandarin at me. I can hear what
you say very well,” said Grandpapa, and Lydia became aware that
she had instinctively been pandering to the Senthoven view that
Grandpapa was a very old man indeed, with all the infirmities proper
to his age.
The Christmas dinner was very well cooked, and very long and very
hot, and conformed in every way to tradition.
“Don’t forget the seasoning in the turkey, George,” said Aunt Beryl
agitatedly. “There’s plenty more where that comes from. Give Lydia a
little more seasoning—she likes chestnut. Sausage, Evelyn?
Sausage, Mr. Almond? Bob, pass the sauce-boat to your sister, and
don’t forget to help yourself on the way. There’s gravy and
vegetables on the side.”
Everyone ate a great deal, and the room grew hotter and hotter, so
that the high colour on Olive Senthoven’s face assumed a glazed
aspect, and the fumes from the enormous dish in front of Uncle
George rose visibly into the air.
Presently Gertrude brought the plum-pudding, blazing in a blue
flame, and with a twig of holly sticking from the top, and much
amusement was occasioned by the discovery that several of the
slices contained a small silver emblem. Mr. Monteagle Almond
solemnly disinterred a thimble, and Bob, with a scarlet face, a
wedding-ring.
Under cover of Olive’s screams on the discovery of a three-penny bit
on her own plate, he pushed the ring over to Lydia.
“I shall give it to you,” he muttered gruffly.
After the plum-pudding, they ate mince-pies, and a little spirit was
poured over each and a lighted match applied by Uncle George, Mr.
Almond or Bob, Aunt Beryl and Aunt Evelyn, in accordance with the
usage of their day, each uttering a small scream as the flame shot
up. When the mince-pies were all finished, the dessert dishes were
pulled out from under the piled-up heaps of crackers and holly
surmounting them.
The dessert was also traditional—oranges, nuts, apples, raisins,
almonds. Everybody avoided direct mention of these last from a
sense of delicacy, until Mr. Monteagle Almond himself remarked
humorously:
“I think I will favour my namesake, if the ladies will pardon an act of
cannibalism.”
Upon which everybody laughed a great deal and jokes were made,
and Bob and Olive began to ask riddles.
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