Partial Oxidation of Methane in Permeable Ni Tube for Effective Hydrogen Production

Abstract

To develop an effective way to produce hydrogen continuously by means of partial oxidation of natural gas methane, we experimentally studied a Ni catalytic‐permeable‐membrane‐tube reactor. When a mixture of CH4 and O2 was introduced into a Ni tube, H2 was produced by a partial oxidation reaction and permeated through the Ni‐tube reactor to separate from another product of CO. The dependence of the partial oxidation rate on the inlet CH4/O2 molar ratio, temperature, flow rate, and total pressure were determined experimentally. The rate constants of the complete oxidation reaction, the steam‐reforming one and the CO2‐reforming one were simultaneously determined at temperatures of 400 to 750°C from fitting analytical calculations to experimental ones. Although complete separation between CO and H2 was not achieved within a limited surface area in the present experiment, it was analytically proved that H2 and CO can be effectively separated in a long Ni‐tube reactor.