Combined steam and dry reforming of methanol over Fe‐Mn‐Cu / ZrO 2 catalyst to syngas formation: Study about kinetic and fuzzy model approaches

Abstract

Combined steam and dry reforming of methanol (CSDRM) experiments were applied to measure the responses of CH3OH conversion, H2/CO ratio, H2 and CO yield at a temperature range of 300°C to 900°C, CO2/H2O ratio of 0.5 to 2.5 and (CO2 + H2O)/CH3OH ratio of 1 to 3 on Fe-Mn-Cu/ZrO2 catalyst in a fixed bed reactor. Fe-Mn-Cu/ZrO2 catalyst was synthesized via the co-precipitation approach, and its physicochemical properties were examined through X-ray diffractometer, X-ray fluorescence, temperature-programmed reduction, N2 adsorption/desorption and thermal gravimetric analysis tests. A kinetic model for CSDRM reaction was derived via the Langmuir-Freundlich method and the proposed mechanism included three reversible reactions on three types of active sites. A Mamdani-type fuzzy model was also developed for comparison purposes, as there was no need for detailed knowledge of the process. The error of the kinetic and Mamdani-type fuzzy model approaches obtained 12.69% and 16.42%, respectively. H2 yield obtained from kinetic model values was closer to the experimental data compared to other responses. However, for the fuzzy model approach, the difference between experimental and calculated methanol conversion was lower.