Modeling Catalytic Partial Oxidation of Methane to Syngas in Short-Contact-Time Packed-Bed Reactors

Abstract

The catalytic partial oxidation of methane to syngas presents interesting challenges, because of the interaction of exothermic combustion and endothermic reforming reactions. The heterogeneous plug-flow and axial-dispersion models are used to analyze the steady-state and dynamic behavior exhibited by this process in a short-contact-time packed-bed reactor. The effects of inlet mass velocity and feed quality on the product yield and hot spots are analyzed. The role of coupling exothermic and endothermic reactions on the magnitude of the temperature peak in the reactor has been studied for different methane-to-oxygen and the methane-to-steam ratios in the feed. The effects of film-transfer coefficients and axial-dispersion coefficients on the steady-state profiles are also discussed. The evidence of wrong-way behavior, because of the response to the perturbation of the inlet temperature and the feed quality, in this short-contact-time reactor is presented.