Oxygen feeding alternatives for the ATR of methane

M.L. RODRIGUEZ; D.E. ARDISSONE; M.N. PEDERNERA; D.O. BORIO

Lyon, Francia

Congreso; Natural Gas Conversion Symposium, NGCS-9; 2010

IRCELYON, CNRS-UCBL, FR

A simulation study of the ATR of CH4 in three different reactor designs is presented. Each design represents different O2 distribution. The axial temperature profiles of the reactors and their performance are analyzed by means of a 1-D, pseudo-homogeneous model considering a Varying Degree of Reduction(VDR) of the Ni catalyst. The results suggest that the hot spots are closely related to the degree of reduction of the Ni catalyst. At high O2 concentrations, the degree of reduction is not enough to enable the evolution of the steam reforming reactions in parallel with the methane oxidation. The axial distribution of the O2 feed strongly affects the reactor performance.