Simulation of Steam Methane Reforming in a Membrane Reactor with a Nickel Catalyst and a Palladium Alloy Foil.

A model of steam methane reforming in a catalytic reactor has been developed the working part of which is two cylindrical chambers separated by a membranous wall. The upper chamber is evacuated while the lower one is maintained at atmospheric pressure. With a uniform supply of raw materials along the outer perimeter of the lower chamber, the problem is reduced to finding the average flows of CH₄, H₂O, CO₂, CO, and H₂ from the solution of a system of five nonlinear ordinary differential equations of the first order. The calculations were carried out for a Pd–6% Ru membrane in the temperature range of 673 K < T < 973 K at a steam/methane inlet flow ratio of 3 and a feed rate of 1800–9600 L/h. As a result of comparing the calculations with experimental data, a theoretical substantiation of the main regularities of the process observed in practice was obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]