Oxygen feeding alternatives for the ATR of methane

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

Lyon, Francia

Simposio; 9th Novel Gas Conversion Symposium; 2010

The conventional autothermal reformer is a compact adiabatic fixed-bed reactor that could be used not only in large-scale plants, but also in fuel cells applications. However, a common problem in ATR is the evolution of the axial temperature profiles, which can exhibit pronounced hot-spots near the reactor inlet. An attractive alternative to reduce or eliminate the hot-spots is the distribution of the O2 feed along the reactor length. This controlled feed of O2 can be obtained by means of a permoselective inorganic membrane or by means of an adiabatic multibed configuration. In the present contribution, three different options of O2 feed for ATR are analysed comparatively.