Partial Oxidation of Methane in Porous Reactor: Part I. Unidirectional Flow

Abstract

Partial oxidation of methane in a unidirectional flow porous reactor is studied numerically. A number of partial oxidation mechanisms affecting H2 and CO yields are comparatively analyzed using kinetic modeling for a range of rich and ultrarich equivalence ratios, residence times, and preset reactor temperatures. Temperature profiles, hydrogen yields, and methane conversion ratios are predicted for various equivalence ratios using two-temperature filtration combustion model with selected detailed chemical mechanism. The simulation results show that the hydrogen yield has two obvious sections: the ignition section and stream reforming section. The hydrogen yield increases with temperature and equivalence ratio increase. The two-temperature model results show a good qualitative agreement with the experimental results especially for the maximum solid temperature and hydrogen production. The wave starts to propagate downstream at φ > 1.5. The maximum solid temperature decreases from 1760 K to 1665 K as the eq...