Decalin Loop in an Optimized Thermally Coupled Dual Methanol Reactor Using Differential Evolution (DE) Strategy

Abstract

Decalin can be used as an energy carrier and hydrogen storage. This paper conducts an analysis of the decalin looping approach in optimized thermally coupled dual methanol reactor (OTCDMR) for simultaneous hydrogen production and consumption. This configuration takes the advantages of couple technique and membrane technology simultaneously. In the first reactor, methanol synthesis and decalin dehydrogenation take place in the tube and the shell sides, respectively. In the second one, naphthalene hydrogenation occurs in the tube side to produce decalin. In this configuration, the hydrogen obtained from the other sources such as a natural-gas steam reforming unit is entered to the second reactor for hydrogenation of naphthalene. Therefore, hydrogen can be stored in the storage tank by being converted into decalin as a liquid material with a high storage capability. The performance of OTCDMR is compared with the thermally coupled reactor (TCR) and the conventional reactor (CR). Results show that the methanol yield can increase about 5.8% and 9.5% in OTCDMR as compared with TCR and CR, respectively. The differential evolution (DE) strategy is used to optimize the configuration operating conditions by considering four decision variables.