Industrial Steam Research Articles

Industrial steam consumption analysis and prediction based on multi-source sensing data for sustainable energy development

Centralized heating is an energy-saving and environmentally friendly way that is strongly promoted by the state. It can improve energy utilization and reduce carbon emissions. However, Centralized heating depends on accurate heat demand forecasting. On the one hand, it is impossible to save energy if over producing, while on the other hand, it is impossible to meet the heat demand of enterprises if there is not enough capacity. Therefore, it is necessary to forecast the future trend of heat consumption, so as to provide a reliable basis for enterprises to reasonably deploy fuel stocks and boiler power. At the same time, it is also necessary to analyze and monitor the steam consumption of enterprises for abnormalities in order to monitor pipeline leakage and enterprise gas theft. Due to the nonlinear characteristics of heat load, it is difficult for traditional forecasting methods to capture data trend. Therefore, it is necessary to study the characteristics of heat loads and explore suitable heat load prediction models. In this paper, industrial steam consumption of a paper manufacturer is used as an example, and steam consumption data are periodically analyzed to study its time series characteristics; then steam consumption prediction models are established based on ARIMA model and LSTM neural network, respectively. The prediction work was carried out in minutes and hours, respectively. The experimental results show that the LSTM neural network has greater advantages in this steam consumption load prediction and can meet the needs of heat load prediction.

Анализ и оценка пожаровзрывобезопасности блочно-модульной котельной, использующей альтернативный теплоноситель

Currently, boiler installations, in which high-temperature mineral or synthetic oil is used as a coolant, are an alternative to industrial steam boilers with superheated steam as a source of process heat. The advantages of the technological and economic nature of the introduction of block-modular boilers into the energy industry with the use of alternative working bodies should be combined with the solution of issues of ensuring their safe operation. The article ranks technological advantages, as well as hazards by the type of coolant used in the thermal oil, steam, and hot water boilers. Difficulties in calculating the category of boiler room premises for explosion and fire hazards are associated with the lack of reliable data on the physico-chemical properties of diathermic oil. Calculations of the most important characteristics influencing the choice of the category of premises for explosion and fire hazard are presented, the factors influencing the fire and explosion safety of the boiler house by oil are identified. It is shown that the safety level of a thermal oil block-modular gas boiler house, tested for emergency oil spills, corresponds to the fire and explosion hazard category B or B3. Calculation of the category of the room of the thermal oil boiler room for explosion and fire hazard in case of emergency gas leaks showed that the boiler room should be attributed to the most hazardous category of explosion and fire A. When calculating the explosion and fire hazard category of the thermal oil gas boiler room, it is determined by gas.

Integrated Moist-Thermoelectric Generator for Efficient Waste Steam Energy Utilization.

Industrial waste steam is one of the major sources of global energy losses. Therefore, the collection and conversion of waste steam energy into electricity have aroused great interest. Here, a "two-in-one" strategy is reported that combines thermoelectric and moist-electric generation mechanisms for a highly efficient flexible moist-thermoelectric generator (MTEG). The spontaneous adsorption of water molecules and heat in the polyelectrolyte membrane induces the fast dissociation and diffusion of Na+ and H+ , resulting in the high electricity generation. Thus, the assembled flexible MTEG generates power with a high open-circuit voltage (Voc ) of 1.81V (effective area=1cm2 ) and a power density of up to 4.75±0.4µWcm-2 . With efficient integration, a 12-unit MTEG can produce a Voc of 15.97V, which is superior to most known TEGs and MEGs. The integrated and flexible MTEGs reported herein provide new insights for harvesting energy from industrial waste steam.

CFD simulation and optimization of turning different waste gases into energy in an industrial steam methane reformer

BackgroundOne of the most important processes of industrial hydrogen production is steam methane reforming (SMR). However, the biggest drawback of steam reformer processes is high energy consumption. In methanol production units, 40% of the energy consumed in the steam reformer is provided by methane burning. The best solution to reduce the consumption of methane gas is to use the waste gases of the units. InnovationTo boost the thermal performance of the furnace, as well as the reduction in natural gas utilization, the effects of the kinds of fuel in an industrial unit are investigated. Furthermore, the waste gas is studied to whether it can be used as fuel in an SMR or not. SignificanceCFD is one of the most powerful tools for simulation of the industrial by which a new unit can be set up or the performance of the old units can be developed. Additionally, the effect of diverse parameters on industrial processes can be examined, and the optimal operating conditions of the industrial unit can be found. MethodsIn this study for five different cases of fuel, the furnace of an industrial SMR unit, at the operating conditions, was simulated using Computational Fluid Dynamics, (CFD) and the results were validated by the industrial data. Moreover, regarding the higher thermal efficiency of the furnace and the lower consumption of natural gas, two cases called design, and the suggested modes, were investigated and suggested mode was proposed as the most suitable fuel. FindingBased on the results, removing purge gas and adding waste gases with lower hydrogen content are recommended. Compared with the operational fuel, the suggested mode decreases the flue gas temperature by 11.78 K and increases the temperature of the first row of the reformer tubes by about 4.17 K, while declining the natural gas molar flow rate by 32%. A 64% reduction in hydrogen content of the suggested mode leads to an increase 10% flame length and 14% enhancement of adsorbed radiative heat flux. Moreover, in the suggested mode it is possible to recycle the purge gas to the methanol synthesis reactor and enhance the methanol production to 1% which is 50 ton/day.

Computational modeling of spatial variation in moisture content and temperature distribution in corn at different superheated steam temperatures

The Superheated steam has been shown to be more effective than hot air for drying corn. Modeling studies have been carried out in fluidized bed dryers to determine the moisture and heat transfer characteristics of corn, but there are no modeling studies for a single corn kernel. Knowledge of heat and mass transfer characteristics in a single kernel would produce a better understanding of steam characteristics needed for specific drying rates. The study sought to determine the influence of steam temperature and velocity on the drying rate of a corn kernel. It used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to model the transfer of heat and moisture between the corn kernel and superheated steam. The simulation used cone geometry to represent the corn kernel. The kernel had characteristic dimensions and 20% initial moisture content. The condition of the steam, which was typical of that found in industry, had temperatures of 120–200°C and velocities of 0.5–1.5 m/s. There was a decrease in the duration of the initial condensation phase as the temperature of superheated steam increased from 120°C to 200°C. The highest steam temperature and velocity resulted in the shortest duration for steam condensation. Contrary to what has been reported, there was no moisture loss from the corn kernel when exposed to superheated steam at 120°C, which may be due to how heat was retained in the drying chamber. Thus, the processes of tapping steam and retaining heat are important elements in the operation of industrial steam driers.

Energy and exergy analysis based on an energy saving process of waste tires pressurized catalytic reforming

The pressurized catalytic reforming technology had a positive impact on product quality, but the energy consumption for industrial applications remained uncertain. To achieve the need for energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly conversion of waste tires, this study developed a system of pressurized catalytic reforming and exhaust gas combustion to produce high-quality oil, char, and industrial steam. The process was analyzed and evaluated based on the energy and exergy balance. The simulation results closely matched the experimental results, demonstrating the accuracy of the developed model. Significant energy savings were realized in the pyrolysis unit at 2.82 GJ/h and reforming unit at 7.57 GJ/h, respectively. The energy loss rates of the pyrolysis unit, heat transfer for the industrial steam unit, reforming unit, and combustion unit were 2.77%, 5.24%, 0.75%, and 0.77% of the system input energy, respectively. In addition, the heat transfer for the industrial steam unit recovered 12.93% of the system input energy. The exergy loss rates of the pyrolysis reactor, combustion reactor, and heat exchanger HEATER6 in the whole simulation system were 38.91%, 12.07%, and 32.29%, respectively.

Study on the Selection of Single-Screw Steam Compressors in Industrial Steam Supply

Both direct and indirect heating compression methods were proposed to satisfy the requirement of industrial steam compression and supply. The compression process in a single-screw compressor was analyzed with the determination of different inlet and outlet boundary conditions. Considering the misalignment of meshing pairs caused by the offset of the star wheel axis and screw origin, the differential expansion of the vertical meshing pair was further analyzed. The inner ring of the sealing end face, the wall of the inner ring of the bearing at the inlet and outlet ends, and the bottom surface of the bracket were analyzed by different coordinate systems and different constraints, thus facilitating the design and selection of the single screw. The critical point for the design of a steam-type single-screw compressor is an outlet temperature of 350 °C and an outlet volume flow rate of 130 m3/min. At a flow rate of 130 m3/min, when the temperature exceeds 350 °C, the reliability of the compressor is still limited, and the differential expansion of the meshing pair exceeds 0.3 mm. In addition, superheating of steam can be improved by applying a centrifugal compressor with cascade compression and centrifugal compression in conjunction with reflux adjustment at the compression outlet.

Investigating the energy, environmental, and economic challenges and opportunities associated with steam sterilisation autoclaves

Abstract Despite steam sterilisation in autoclaves being a common industrial method of sterilisation, very little research has been conducted into quantifying the resources these processes demand and their associated environmental impacts. This paper aims to investigate industrial steam sterilisation in autoclaves with particular application to the biopharmaceutical industry. A mathematical model of a steam autoclave was developed to examine relationships between load size, load material properties and autoclave capacity with energy consumption, environmental impact and cost of sterilisation. The two main energy requirements are thermal energy to produce the clean steam for sterilising, and electrical energy for the vacuum pump. The study showed that thermal energy is dominant, particularly as load increases. The percentage of the maximum load at which the autoclave is operated has a major impact on the specific energy requirement or the energy required to sterilise per unit mass of load. For a given autoclave, the energy requirement increases with increased load but the specific energy requirement decreases. This in turn impacts on the emissions and the energy cost. It is thus shown that it is much more energy efficient to operate at higher loads, making the autoclave much more energy and cost effective, and with less environmental impact. There is potential for applying the analysis presented in this work for conducting optimisation studies for determining the sizes of autoclaves that could minimise the energy requirement, environmental impact and economic cost (3E) of investments for specified load versus time profiles.

A Regional Analysis of China’s Environmental Issues

Over the history of economic development, natural resources have always played an essential role. For instance, during the first Industrial Revolution steam engine greatly increased the efficiency of production: with the help of the combustion of black coal, and later oil, the worth of natural resources from the Earth was never devalued. For every economic entity, immense development at the beginning of the process seems inevitable, and China’s economic development follows a similar trajectory, yet with the continuing development, environmental issues are becoming non-negligible anymore in China, which could potentially drag and slow down overall economic progress. What problems is China facing nowadays and what will it face in the future, and what sort of measures can have their own practical meaning to the world? We are going to look at the details in this paper.

An improved vacuum-steam pulsed blanching machine design and garlic scape blanching verified experiment

Vacuum-steam pulsed blanching (VSPB) is an emerging blanching method resulting in high efficiency and product quality. However, inconvenient loading, small loading capacity, uneven rinsing and imprecise control hinder its application in food industry. Therefore, the current work aimed to design a VSPB machine, including selection of components, building a control system and designing a steam nozzle in order to increase the load capacity and improve device control. For this purpose, a horizontal blanching chamber with internal nozzle was designed and optimized using CFD method. The vacuum chamber design required a more evenly distributed steam inlet. A water-sealing vacuum pump, a cooling device and a hardware system were developed. The distribution of steam released from the nozzle in the chamber was numerically investigated by solving the three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations, with a velocity uniformity index value of 0.448. The validation blanching test was conducted using garlic scape as the test material. The steam holding time and the number of cycles significantly affected (p < 0.05) the color of the garlic scapes. Peroxidase (POD) activity decreased with the increase of blanching cycles until the enzymes were completely inactivated. VSPB significantly decreased (p < 0.05) the lignin content of the garlic scapes. The findings indicate that the best results were obtained after 2 cycles of VSPB and steam holding time of 30 s. Industrial relevanceHot water and steam thermal blanching are the two most frequently used blanching methods in food processing. Generally, they are used as a pretreatment before drying, freezing or canning of different fruits and vegetables. In current work, an improved vacuum-steam pulsed blanching machine was designed and the validation blanching test with garlic scape as the material indicated that VSPB operation was effective in preventing the synthesis of lignification in garlic scapes. By considering enzyme inactivation, lignification, color, and other quality attributes, 2 cycles of VSPB and steam holding for 30 s were proposed as the optimal VSPB conditions.

Quantitative study on steam system thermal inertia based on a dynamic hydraulic analytical model

Integrated energy system (IES) in industrial parks is pivotal to China's carbon neutrality path, where steam plays a critical role as an energy carrier and raw materials in the production process. Utilization of the thermal inertia of steam systems may become a means to address challenges in industrial park IES dispatch. However, researchers have less discussed the dynamic modeling and inertia quantification of industrial steam systems compared to district heating. This work proposes a dynamic hydraulic analytical model (DHAM) of steam systems reflecting the spatial and temporal transportation of steam by introducing the reference temperature and momentum linearization assumptions. Further, a steam thermal inertia model (STIM) which comprises five storage key parameters and two indexes, is developed to quantify the thermal inertia based on DHAM. Validation results of DHAM in an industrial park demonstrate that the relative error is less than 3%, achieving high accuracy. Whilst the thermal inertia of a 163-node steam system in two operation conditions is quantified and compared. Results show that the net heat storage of the steam system could reach 7440.30 kg while the positive utilization rate in both scenarios never rises above 3%. It indicates that the thermal inertia as virtual storage can fully cover the dispatching demand while is not utilized and lacks the regulation strategy of active charging in operation. DHAM and STIM proposed in this study lay the quantitative basis for steam system analysis and operation optimization of industrial park IES.

Operating Modes Optimization for the Boiler Units of Industrial Steam Plants

The free market forces energy-intensive industrial enterprises to continuously compete. A possible competitive advantage for such enterprises is reducing the finished products cost. This may be achieved by reducing the share of energy in this cost, including by rationalizing the use of energy resources. This study develops a system for the automated analysis and calculation of feasible boiler unit loads, defined according to the criterion of the minimum cost of live steam in a separate steam plant pipeline. The calculations consider the balance limit on the steam, the boiler unit’s wear and tear, performance specifications, and economic indicators of fuel consumption in the calculation. The software also defines the optimal fuel mix composition when forecasting the operating modes of the power plant boiler units in real-time mode. The calculation algorithm is based on the dynamic programming technique combined with the sequential equivalenting method, which ensures the convergence of calculations. When a steam plant model is developed, much attention is paid to the thermal scheme and technical and economic specifications of boiler units. In the system, the boiler models are set as a table containing the ratio between the boiler unit’s steam capacity and energy consumption while considering the cost of a ton of live steam with the specified parameters. The key economic effect of implementing the system is determined by reducing the fuel cost due to its rational redistribution between the power plant boiler units. Implementing the system allows the reduction of energy costs by 1.4%.

Can Pyrolysis Oil Be Used as a Feedstock to Close the Gap in the Circular Economy of Polyolefins?

Plastics are engineering marvels that have found widespread use in all aspects of modern life. However, poor waste management practices and inefficient recycling technologies, along with their extremely high durability, have caused one of the major environmental problems facing humankind: waste plastic pollution. The upcycling of waste plastics to chemical feedstock to produce virgin plastics has emerged as a viable option to mitigate the adverse effects of plastic pollution and close the gap in the circular economy of plastics. Pyrolysis is considered a chemical recycling technology to upcycle waste plastics. Yet, whether pyrolysis as a stand-alone technology can achieve true circularity or not requires further investigation. In this study, we analyzed and critically evaluated whether oil obtained from the non-catalytic pyrolysis of virgin polypropylene (PP) can be used as a feedstock for naphtha crackers to produce olefins, and subsequently polyolefins, without undermining the circular economy and resource efficiency. Two different pyrolysis oils were obtained from a pyrolysis plant and compared with light and heavy naphtha by a combination of physical and chromatographic methods, in accordance with established standards. The results demonstrate that pyrolysis oil consists of mostly cyclic olefins with a bromine number of 85 to 304, whereas light naphtha consists of mostly paraffinic hydrocarbons with a very low olefinic content and a bromine number around 1. Owing to the compositional differences, pyrolysis oil studied herein is completely different than naphtha in terms of hydrocarbon composition and cannot be used as a feedstock for commercial naphtha crackers to produce olefins. The findings are of particular importance to evaluating different chemical recycling opportunities with respect to true circularity and may serve as a benchmark to determine whether liquids obtained from different polyolefin recycling technologies are compatible with existing industrial steam crackers' feedstock.

Evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of solutions to improve the efficiency of atmospheric deaeration in boiler plants

The reliable and economical operation of equipment for thermal power plants, heat supply systems and boiler houses has been a relevant problem in the field of thermal power engineering for many years. In many industries, industrial steam is often used, for which steam boilers are used at thermal power plants. The water consumed by the boilers undergoes pre-treatment, which, in addition to its softening, includes thermal deaeration — the removal of aggressive gases that lead to equipment corrosion. Atmospheric deaerators are often used for this purpose. They are easy to use, quite effective, but have a disadvantage — a considerable amount of heat is lost with the removed flash steam. The article is dedicated to evaluating the cost-effectiveness of the technology for additional heating of return system water using deaerator steam and considering a method for improving the efficiency of atmospheric deaeration by partial closure of flash steam output in boiler plants. The paper presents a calculation of the scheme of operation of a deaeration plant, which makes it possible to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the boiler house of the AB InBev Efes brewery in Ulyanovsk due to additional heating of return system water with atmospheric deaerator flash steam. The article also discusses the scheme of operation of an atmospheric deaerator, in which the flash steam will be discharged into the atmosphere only if it is necessary to remove aggressive gases. Thanks to the developed scheme, when the deaerator operates with a closed flash steam removal pipeline and without being fed with chemically purified water, the consumption of industrial steam is reduced, especially with a significant return of condensate, which increases the efficiency of the entire boiler room as a whole. According to preliminary calculations, assuming the average return of condensate from production per day of about 300 m3, the production steam savings will be 0.8 tons.

Simulation and performance improvement of an industrial steam methane reformer: depreciation and ceramic coating effects

In this work, Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) is applied to compare the performance of an industrial reformer furnace in four cases. The first and tenth years of operation are two cases with different emissivity factors and fuel components. The results are validated with industrial data and with other CFD simulation typical plants reported in the SMR literature. The results show that a 10% increase in fuel consumption in the tenth year cannot compensate for all temperature drop in skin tubes, and there is still a 14 K temperature drop, leading to a 5% decrease in hydrogen production in tubes. This is due to the different fuel components of the tenth year compared to the first year. To examine the effect of fuel change more closely, the third case is defined with the fuel components of the tenth year and the emissivity factor of the first year. The comparison of this case with others shows that fuel components have a high effect on system performance. The major reason for efficiency reduction between the first and tenth years correlates to a 50% decline in the wall surface emissivity factor. Finally, in the fourth case, applying a ceramic coating with a high emissivity factor is considered via the CFD model for the reformer in the tenth year. This change leads to an increase of about 19 K in tube temperature in the tenth year, which is 3 K more than that in the first year. It can be concluded that the ceramic coating application in the wall of the refractory of the reformer can reduce 14% fuel consumption and enhance hydrogen production.

Simulation and economic analysis of the high-temperature heat storage system of thermal power plants oriented to the smart grid

With the continuous increase of the grid-connected proportion of intermittent renewable energy, in order to ensure the reliability of smart grid operation, it is urgent to improve the operational flexibility of thermal power plants. Electric heat storage technology has broad prospects in terms of in-depth peak shaving of power grids, improving new energy utilization rates and improving the environment. It is an important means to promote electric energy substitution. In this study, the economics of technical application scenarios are compared and analyzed, the principle of solid heat storage technology is discussed, and its application in heating fields such as industrial steam, district heating, and deep peak regulation of congeneration units is expounded. The results indicate that in the scenario where the peak shaving subsidy and the heat storage duration are the same, as the unit output increases, the investment recovery period increases. Moreover, the results also indicate that in the 0.3 yuan/kW power market peaking subsidy scenario, only when the unit output is 0 and the heat storage time is greater than 8 h, the investment can be recovered in 5 years, while in the 0.7 yuan/kW power market peaking subsidy scenario, except for the scenario where the unit output is 40% and the heat storage time is 7 h, the investment cannot be recovered; in other scenarios, the investment can be recovered within 5 years.

Analysis of the Brayton cycle coupled with a small fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor

Considering the environmental conditions and transportation conditions of remote areas, an inherently safe integrated energy conversion system featuring miniaturization, modularization, and high environmental adaptability is needed. The small fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor (FHR) coupled with the Brayton cycle is a promising design. In this paper, the efficiency, exergy efficiency, and exergy loss of four different configurations of the supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) Brayton cycle coupled with a new small fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor are compared. The S-CO2 recompressor Brayton cycle has the best overall performance. Meanwhile, the effects of the cooling conditions on the thermal efficiency and exergy efficiency of different cycle configurations are discussed. When the core outlet temperature is 700°C, the efficiency of the designed S-CO2 recompressor Brayton cycle is approximately 42–44% when the cycle minimum temperature is 20–40°C. In conclusion, the designed small FHR coupled with the Brayton cycle system offers interesting performances in power generation, mineral mining, industrial steam supply, molten salt energy storage, and high-temperature hydrogen production in remote areas.

Integration of Dynamic Models and Virtual Reality for the Training of Steam Generator Operators

Abstract The goal of the PITSTOP (Immersive platform for structured operator training) project is to overcome the limits of traditional workplace training on dangerous systems and reduce the related risks, using an innovative integration of engineering simulation models and virtual reality (VR) tools. This article specifically presents the first VR platform for training on small-scale industrial steam generators, representative of a vast class of hazardous industrial equipment. The dynamic model of the steam generator was developed in matlab-simulink using a mixed physics-based and data-driven approach. The generator model includes the main engineering components, actuators and measuring equipment, as well as control logic and emergency procedures. It can simulate normal operations and emergency situations. The model was calibrated using experimental data collected from the real system at various operating conditions to align simulated performance with the real behavior. The VR environment was developed in Unity, a graphics engine widely adopted by the videogame industry, using three-dimensional computer-aided design models of the steam generator and its surroundings. The user can access this immersive system wearing an HTC Vive headset. Unlike most existing training systems, learners can interact with the actuators using bare hands gestures, without controllers, making the experience intuitive and easily accessible. By connecting the dynamic model with the VR environment, the user's interactions are directly provided to the steam generator model, which in turn directly outputs the steam generator response to the VR environment, providing audio and visual feedback to the user, as if they were actually acting on the real generator. The results from this study could boost the further development of training platforms to safely train operators and certify their competence.

Machine learning modeling and experimental study to forecast the pressure of Very High-Pressure (VHP) steam in an industrial steam cracking process

The steam cracking process converts hydrocarbons such as ethane and propane into ethylene, propylene and etc. In this study, a number of crucial features, which can affect the furnace output of Very High-Pressure steam (VHP), are studied. Thus, a set of experiments is conducted at a petrochemical plant to determine the effect of the coil’ outlet temperature of cracked hydrocarbon gas, the feed flow rate, dilution steam (DS), negative pressure in the furnace, and flow rate of injected water into steam on the pressure of VHP steam. In addition, the credibility of industrial data is confirmed using the Leverage method. It is found that a maximum VHP steam pressure for each feed flow rate is obtained when the ratio of dilution steam to the feed rate roughly equals 0.37. The mentioned ratio also controls the coke formation in the reactor coils. In the following, three effective machine learning methods are developed, based on 1077 industrial data samples covering a wide operating conditions' range, for estimating process' VHP steam pressure. The model built by radial basis function (RBF) shows sprier agreement with plant data with an average absolute relative deviation (AARD), standard deviation (SD), and R2 values of 0.11%, 0.79% and 99.33%, respectively, for total data points. It is revealed that the developed models are reliable for controlling the amount of VHP steam pressure by changing feed flow rates, the flow rate of injected water into steam, dilution steam, and the temperature of outlet cracked hydrocarbon gas. In addition, a sensitivity analysis is accomplished using Spearman's correlation coefficient based on the most accurate RBF model.

A comprehensive CFD simulation of an industrial-scale side-fired steam methane reformer to enhance hydrogen production

The present work deals with the CFD simulation of steam methane reforming (SMR) with a view to design and improve the SMR technology. Numerical simulations have been devoted to accurately modeling the primary reformer tube used in major petrochemical industries by employing the kinetic mechanism, standard k-Ɛ turbulence models, and discrete ordinates (DO) radiation model. The developed model has been validated with the available modeling studies on industrial steam methane reforming in the operating condition. Moreover, the effects of some key parameters such as surface heat flux, reformer tube length, reformer tube diameter, steam-to-carbon ratio (S/C), and feed flow rate on the performance of industrial tube reformer have been investigated. Using a suitable sensitivity analysis, the optimal values of these parameters are recommended for the optimal performance of the reformer tube in order to increase hydrogen production in the industrial reformer. Numerical results show that considering the optimal values including surface heat flux of 95 kW·m2, reformer tube length of 11 m, reformer tube diameter of 0.172 m, S/C = 1.6 and feed flow rate of 0.34 kg·s−1 leads to an increase of about 20% in hydrogen production compared to petrochemical industrial data.