CFD-simulation of membrane reactor for methane steam reforming

A membrane reactor is a reaction system that provides higher productivity and lower separation cost in chemical reaction processes. In this paper, packed bed catalytic membrane reactor with palladium membrane for methane steam reforming was analyzed both experimentally and numerically. The numerical model consists of a full set of partial differential equations derived from conservation of mass, momentum, heat and chemical species, respectively, with chemical kinetics and appropriate boundary conditions for the problem. The solution of this system was obtained by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). To perform CFD calculations, a commercial solver FLUENT has been used and the selective permeation through the membrane has been modeled by user defined functions. The CFD simulation resulted to exhibit the flow distribution in the reactor by inserting a membrane protection tube, in addition to the temperature and concentration distribution in the axial and radial directions in the reactor, as reported as membrane reactor numerical simulation. On the basis of the simulation results, effects of the flow distribution, concentration polarization and mass transfer in the packed bed will be shown in the presentation to design a membrane reactor system.