Computational fluid dynamics simulation of CO2 methanation in a shell-and-tube reactor with multi-region conjugate heat transfer

Abstract

Methanation is one of the promising candidates in developing CO2 utilization technology. Because of its exothermic behavior, the methanation reactor must be carefully designed to avoid the hotspots formation and the deterioration of catalysts. This study presents a numerical study simulates heat transfer between the reacting gas in a porous catalyst layer, reactor tube, and coolant in a shell-and-tube reactor. The aim is to develop a tool can predict the hotspots appearing in the reactor used in CO2 methanation. The open-source toolbox OpenFOAM is adopted and modified. The catalyst bed is assumed to be a continuous porous medium. The results revealed that the solver captures the trends of temperature profiles along both axial and radial directions. The maximum catalyst temperature predicted by this solver is in good agreement with the experimental result, indicating that the solver is a promising tool for future applications in reactor optimization and heat management.