Abstract
This work aims to develop a stationary phenomenological model of an industrial steam reforming unit. Unlike the usual approach in the literature, the combustion reactions at the furnace are described through rigorous distributed mass and energy balances to predict the concentration and temperature profiles along the length of the equipment. A more precise prediction of these profiles is useful for understanding and monitoring the quality of the outlet gas for different inlet conditions without the need to know the length of the flame. This model further considers the refractory as an additional control volume, allowing us to predict and avoid temperature gradients that could damage the equipment and lead to operational downtime. The heat transfer effects are described in detail as the radiation reabsorbed by a different element inside the same phase (i.e., two tubes or refractory walls exchanging radiant energy), the radiant heat absorbed by the gas inside the furnace, and the heat transferred by radiation inside the tubes. The model is validated against different case studies using industrial and literature data. The model predicts reformed and flue gas compositions with maximum relative deviations (with respect to experimental data) of 3.27% (case 1) and 11.14% (case 5), respectively, proving the adequacy of the proposed model. Sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate the influence of some heat transfer phenomena, often neglected in the literature, on the performance of the developed model. Through this analysis, it was possible to identify the most important heat transfer phenomena (the radiant energy exchanged intraphase, i.e., between two tubes, and between phases, i.e., the tube and the process/furnace gases) and those that are negligible (convective heat transfer at the furnace). The proposed model might be useful for process monitoring as well as optimization.
Highlights
The mathematical modeling of a methane steam reforming unit (MSRU) is a challenging task
The main goal of this paper is to develop a model of an industrial MSRU, considering four control volumes, the catalyst-filled tubes (CFTs), tube wall, furnace, and refractory, using a more simplified approach than the one commonly reported in the literature, by the computational fluid dynamics approach
Despite the high operating temperature of the process gases, the presence of hydrogen in the gas mixture and the high operating pressure of the CFT raise the question of whether the hypothesis of ideal gas is valid. Attempting to investigate this ideal behavior, as considered by most of the works reported in the literature, some tests are performed in the separation and phase equilibrium calculations (SPECS) simulator, from Technical University of Denmark, using the Soave−Redlich−Kwong equation, with classical mixing rule and binary interaction parameter kij = 0.0.81 The compressibility factors are computed at the inlet and outlet of the tube and furnace as well as at the point with the highest temperature along the furnace, referred to as a peak position
Summary
The mathematical modeling of a methane steam reforming unit (MSRU) is a challenging task This process involves complex heat phenomena because radiation, convection, and conduction mechanisms are responsible for the simultaneous heat transfer between several control volumes within the equipment. Several studies about modeling and simulation of MSRUs are reported in the literature, using different approaches, from the simplest to the most complex, depending on the purpose for which the model was developed. Such models can be distinguished by the representation of the catalytic bed equation as well as by the treatment given to model the radiant furnace
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