Catalyst, catalyst carrier or absorbent monolith of stacked strands

A method for producing a three-dimensional porous catalyst, catalyst carrier or absorbent monolith of stacked strands of catalyst, catalyst carrier or absorbent material, comprising the following steps:

• a) preparing a paste of metal, metal alloy, metal compound particles of catalytically active metal or catalyst support particles in a liquid diluent, in which the metal, metal alloy or metal compound particles can be supported on or mixed with catalyst support particles, and which paste can optionally comprise a binder material,
• b) extruding the paste of step a) through one or more nozzles having a diameter larger than 500 μm to form strands, and depositing the extruded strands in alternating layers of linear spaced-apart parallel strands, wherein the alternating layers are oriented at an angle to one another, to form a three-dimensional porous monolith precursor,
• c) drying the porous monolith precursor to remove the liquid diluent,
• d) optionally, for producing a three-dimensional porous catalyst, reducing metal oxide(s) in the porous monolith precursor to form the catalytically active metal or metal alloy, or additional heat treatment to produce a catalytically active material,
• wherein the distance between inner spaced-apart parallel strands is larger than the distance between outer spaced-apart parallel strands in at least a part of the layers of the monolith.