The key sentence: "Low intrinsic electrical conductivities are obtained by utilizing electrically conductive ceramics made from reaction-bonded silicon carbide."

The basic idea seems to be to make some kind of mesh/foam that will survive high temperatures, is conductive, and contains the catalyst for the desired reaction. Then the mesh/foam can be heated inductively, and you get good contact between the hot catalyst and the reactants.

I'd never heard of silicon carbide ceramic foams before, but they are apparently a common industrial product.[1] Alibaba has many suppliers. They're useful for filters that have to survive high temperatures. The process by which they're made allows adding other materials to the foam, so you can get a material with your catalyst and a nice big surface to volume ratio. That, too, is a known idea.[2] Now somebody has to try it at pilot plant scale for various processes that use catalysts and heat. Which someone did, back in 2016.[3] Even electrically heated silicon carbide ceramic catalytic foams are known.[4] That one used resistive heating, not induction heating.

So the new thing here is induction heating. May be a win. Uniform heating, even if the mesh has some breaks or shorts.

This is a reasonable idea hidden under way too many big words. Amusingly, the articles from people who are doing this sort of thing in production don't use the term "metamaterial". And they write better. This is in "Cell", and not "Process Engineering" or "Chemical & Engineering News". What's it doing in Cell?

[1] https://www.sefunm.com/info/how-do-you-make-a-ceramic-foam-f...

[2] https://www.samaterials.com/content/what-is-the-silicon-carb...

[3] https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Cuong-Duong-Viet/public...

[4] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09205...