Methane partial oxidation reverse flow reactor scale up and optimization

• Published in: International journal of hydrogen energy 2008-10, Vol.33 (20), p.5501-5509
• Main Authors: Dobrego, K.V., Gnezdilov, N.N., Lee, S.H., Choi, H.K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alternative fuels. Production and utilization; Applied sciences; Devices using thermal energy; Energy; Energy. Thermal use of fuels; Exact sciences and technology; Filtration combustion; Fuels; Heat pumps; Hydrogen; Methane partial oxidation; Numerical simulation; Optimization; Scale up; Synthesis gas
• ISSN: 0360-3199; 1879-3487
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2008.06.071

Estimation of methane partial oxidation reciprocal flow filtration combustion reactor performance in the case of its scale up (flow rates G = 4, 40, 400 and 4000 Nm 3/h) as well as parametric study of the bigger scale reactor is performed numerically. It is shown that residence time growth with reactor scale up is compensated with maximum temperature decrease. Reduced aspect ratio reactors are considered for higher productivity systems. Parametric study performed for G = 400 Nm 3/h reduced aspect ratio reactor show: Φ = 2.7 equivalence ratio is optimal to maximize conversion ratio and H 2 output concentration; smaller porous media particle d 0 = 2–3 mm should be used for lower specific mass flow rates G m = 0.5–1 kg/m 2/s and bigger particles – for higher G m ; porosity variation m = 0.4–0.55 does not influence conversion ratio; kaowool insulation layer increase from 3 to 10 cm results in ∼1% growth of conversion ratio while further increase up to 50 cm provides less than 0.5% gain. The results may be utilized for bigger scale reactors design, optimization and exploitation.