Analysis of heat effects in a membrane reactor for the WGSR

M. E. ADROVER; E. LÓPEZ; D.O. BORIO; M. N. PEDERNERA

México

Congreso; Mexican Congress on Chemical Reaction Engineering (MCCRE 2008); 2008

The Water Gas Shift Reaction (WGSR) is a reversible and moderately exothermic reaction widely used in industry. In ammonia plants, two adiabatic reactors at different temperature levels are disposed in series (HTS and LTS) to reach high CO conversions. In smaller scale applications, such as fuel processing for PEM fuel cells, the WGSR reactor is installed downstream the reformer to increase the production rate and purify the process stream. In these designs, the WGSR is carried out in a single adiabatic reactor at intermediate temperature. However, the chemical equilibrium limitations make neccesary to introduce another purification stage (e.g., CO PrOx) to reach the specified CO content for the fuel cell (