Oxygen feeding strategies for methane ATR

Abstract

The performance of different reactor designs for methane autothermal reforming (ATR) with diverse options of O2 feeding is comparatively explored. The designs under consideration include a single bed reactor with O2 feed at the inlet, multibed reactors in series with inter-bed oxygen injection, and a multitubular membrane reactor with O2 feeding through the porous wall. The distribution of O2 leads to low O2 concentrations in the reaction mixture and less severe thermal conditions. The evolution of methane reforming and combustion reactions proceeds in parallel due to a suitable degree of reduction of the Ni catalyst. Particularly, the membrane reactor can produce H2 in a more distributed way along the reactor. The leakage of O2 at the membrane reactor outlet can be prevented with a final section of a non-porous wall. The modified membrane reactor demonstrates flexibility to carry out the methane ATR with lower temperatures without deterioration of H2 yield.