Syngas production by ultrarich oxy-natural gas combustion in a pilot-scale porous burner

Abstract

A mixture of H2 and CO called syngas is a strategically important intermediate synthetic gas in chemical industries. A common production method of the syngas is catalytic steam reforming of natural gas which is limited due to the environmental and energy consumption subjects. In the current work, as a proper alternative, the ultra-rich thermal partial oxidation (non-catalytic) of natural gas was experimentally investigated to produce syngas with H2/CO ratio near two in a zirconia inert porous burner. High equivalence ratio aiming to extend ultra-rich fuel with pure oxygen (oxy-natural gas combustion) was considered at higher thermal loads by modifying the previous facility. The experimental tests were obtained at high thermal powers of 12–20 kW with equivalence ratios of 2.7 up to 3.1 where only pure oxygen was used as the oxidizer. Analyzing the product samples captured from the reactor output showed that a syngas with H2/CO of about 1.8 was produced at the equivalence ratio of 3.1 at 20 kW. The more thermal power was applied, the more H2/CO was produced with a greater conversion of natural gas within the reactor.