School of Mechanical Engineering michal deckelbaum
School of Mechanical Engineering Seminar
Wednesday, January 10, 2018 at 14:00
Wolfson Building of Mechanical Engineering, Room 206
Enhancement of steam methane reforming reactor
with static mixer elements
Michal Deckelbaum
MSc Student of Prof. Abraham Kribus
Steam methane reforming (SMR) converts natural gas (methane) and steam into syngas, a mixture of hydrogen (H2) and carbon monoxide (CO). Syngas can be used for synthesis of alternative liquid fuels and many other chemicals, and is a leading source of hydrogen in the industry. The SMR reaction takes place in a reactor that is usually a set of externally heated pipes filled with a packed bed of small catalyst pellets. Ceramic foams were proposed as an alternative to a packed bed, with lower pressure drop and potentially better lateral mixing in the pipe. However these solutions suffer from large radial gradients of temperature and concentration, leading to low reaction rates, possible overheating and failure of the reactor walls, and the need for very long reactors.
The current research investigates the addition of static mixer elements inside the pipes, integrated with the porous catalyst medium, in order to improve the radial mixing and heat transfer and reduce the radial gradients. We use the COMSOL Multiphysics® software to simulate the reactor, where we analyze the momentum, mass, chemical species, and energy balance equations. We have considered two geometries of static mixers that are commonly used in the industry for mixing in open pipes (without the catalyst porous medium). One has shown no improvement in the reactor performance, while the other showed better conversion rate of methane and hydrogen production. Such improvements can make the SMR process in the industry more efficient and economical.
