Utilising a radial flow, spherical packed-bed reactor for auto thermal steam reforming of methane to achieve a high capacity of H-2 production

摘要

Due to various problems associated with the use of conventional reactors (CR) in different units, such as pressure drop across the tube, high manufacturing costs and low production capacity, a novel radial flow spherical packed bed reactor (RF-SPBR) is proposed in the current study for auto thermal steam reforming of methane. As the RF-SPBR is considered to be a viable alternative to CR, their simulation results while performing auto thermal steam reforming, are compared in this manuscript. In this case, the developed mass and energy balance equations have been solved for both CR and RF-SPBR and the yield of products profile and conversion of reactants have been compared with both designs. The results indicate that pressure drops imperceptibly decreases from 3 to 2.97 bar in the spherical configuration, while in CR it drops from 3 to arotind 2.4 bar. Since more reactants can be used in the spherical design, the novel spherical reactor configuration is one of the most economically viable alternatives in comparison with tubular reactors in terms of both process enhancement and costs minimisation and, thus, it can be considered as a remedy in reforming units.