Modeling of Solar Reforming Reactors for the Production of Syngas Suitable for Methanol Synthesis

Abstract

Quantitative understanding of the detailed reaction process in two-phase (solid-gas) catalytic fixed bed reactors is of great importance in reactor design and up-scaling. In this thesis, a twodimensional (quasi) homogenous fixed bed reactor model is developed to simulate mixed steam and dry reforming process of natural gas for the production of tailored syngas (particularly for methanol synthesis) in catalytic fixed bed reactors. The conservation equations of mass, momentum, energy and species balance equations were considered in the formulation of the numerical problem, with inclusion of the catalytic surface chemistry through algebraic constraints. Starting from a twodimensionaal semi-empirical fixed bed reactor model from literature, the numerical configuration is simplified by the boundary layer approximations. The mathematical framework is implemented within Matlab, while the detailed reaction schemes for catalytic reforming are handled by the chemical kinetics toolkit Cantera. The results of the proposed model are validated against literature simulation results and experimental data. This simplified model is characterized by reasonable computational effort while providing detailed description of surface chemistry and maintaining high prediction accuracy.