OP-II-3

PP-II-30MODELING OF METHANE STEAM REFORMING PROCESSIN POROUS CATALYSTMehdizadeh H. and Sadeghi M.T.Process Simulation and Control Research Lab., Chemical Engineering College, IranUniversity of Science and Technology (IUST), Narmak 16846, Tehran, Iran.E-mail: sadeghi@iust.ac.irABSTRACTHydrogen is widely used as feedstock of various chemical processes, petroleumindustries and petrochemical plants. It is generally produced via steam reforming ofnatural gas at oil refineries. The reforming units are basically containing burners andfixed bed reactors [1-3] packed by nickel catalyst type particles. The packed bedtubes are exposed to significant axial temperature gradients due to the high heatinput on the tube’s wall [2]. In previous works, it has been found that by increasingthe lumen pressure, methane conversion increases in the membrane reactor [4].Moreover, the velocity and heat transfer coefficient have influence on methaneconversion [5]. The intraparticle temperature differences are small compared toexternal temperature differences at high fluid temperature [6].In this work, a two-dimensional model of fixed bed reactor for the catalyticmethane steam reforming process is developed in order to investigate the effect ofdifferent parameters on axial temperature and methane conversion. Partialdifferential equation describing conversion laws for mass, energy and momentumtransfers were solved in order to study the heat transfer and fluid flow in the system.The kinetics of methane reforming and the reactions mechanism were obtained fromHou and Hughes [7].Influences of the inlet temperature on methane conversion at constant pressureas well as inlet pressure on the methane conversion at constant temperature areinvestigated. The results show that increasing the inlet temperature leads to increaseof methane conversion however, the temperature differences along the reactor isalso reduced. It was found that the methane conversion decreases with increasinginlet pressure while the axial temperature profile is increased along the reactor.386