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Modeling of dry reforming of methane for hydrogen production at low temperatures using membrane reactor

  • Cheng-Yang Lu and Rei-Yu Chein EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: March 8, 2021
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International Journal of Chemical Reactor Engineering
From the journal International Journal of Chemical Reactor Engineering Volume 19 Issue 3

Abstract

The hydrogen removal and carbon formation effects in dense palladium (Pd)-based membrane reactors for dry reforming of methane (DRM) performance is numerically analyzed in this study. The steady-state membrane reactor operation is described using a three-dimensional, heterogeneous, non-isothermal mathematical model. Based on the numerical simulation results for reaction temperature and pressure varied in the 400–600 °C and 1–30 atm ranges, methane conversion and hydrogen yield were found enhanced using the membrane reactor. However, carbon formation, which affects catalyst activity and limits the benefits of using a membrane reactor is also enhanced. A parametric study using reaction pressure as the primary parameter for the membrane reactor operation found that the CH4 conversion, hydrogen yield, H2 recovery, and carbon formation can be enhanced by increasing the reaction temperature, inlet CO2/CH4 ratio, and sweep gas flow rate. With the enhanced H2 removal, carbon formation is also enhanced. Because membrane permeance is inversely proportional to the membrane thickness, membrane thickness can be used as a parameter to control the carbon formation under given operating conditions.

Keywords: carbon formation; dry reforming of methane (DRM); H2 yield; membrane permeance; Pd-based membrane reactor
Corresponding author: Rei-Yu Chein, Deptarment of Mechanical Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung City40227, Taiwan, E-mail:

  1. Author contribution: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: None declared.

  3. Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this article.

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Received: 2020-07-20
Accepted: 2020-11-26
Published Online: 2021-03-08

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/ijcre-2020-0111
Keywords for this article
carbon formation; dry reforming of methane (DRM); H2 yield; membrane permeance; Pd-based membrane reactor

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Articles
  3. Performance and microbial community of a novel PVA/iron-carbon (Fe–C) immobilized bioreactor for nitrate removal from groundwater
  4. Modeling of dry reforming of methane for hydrogen production at low temperatures using membrane reactor
  5. Formation mechanism and chaotic reinforcement elimination of the mechanical stirring isolated mixed region
  6. CFD-DEM simulation of powders clogging in a packed bed with lateral inlet
  7. Degradation of basic violet 16 dye by electro-activated persulfate process from aqueous solutions and toxicity assessment using microorganisms: determination of by-products, reaction kinetic and optimization using Box–Behnken design
  8. Propargyloligosilazane matrixed composite for high temperature material combining polymer and ceramic properties
  9. An application of continuous flow microreactor in the synthesis and extraction of rabeprazole
  10. Numerical study on gas–liquid two-phase flow and mass transfer in a microchannel
  11. A new two-layer passive micromixer design based on SAR-vortex principles
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