Enhancement of Hydrogen and Methanol Production using a Double Fluidized-bed Two Membranes Reactor

Nowadays, hydrogen and methanol are attractive prospects because of lower emission compared to the other energy sources and their special application in fuel cell technology, which are now widely regarded as key energy solution for the 21st century. These two chemicals also can be utilized in transportation, distributed heat and power generation and energy storage systems. In this study, a novel double fluidized-bed two-membrane reactor (DFTMR) is proposed to produce ultrapure hydrogen and enhance methanol synthesis as environmentally friendly fuels, simultaneously. The fluidization concept is used in both sides to overcome drawbacks such as internal mass transfer limitations, pressure drop, radial gradients of concentration and temperature in thermally coupled membrane reactors. The DFTMR system is modeled based on the two-phase theory of fluidization and then its performance is compared with those of thermally coupled membrane reactor (TCMR) and conventional methanol reactor (CR) under the same operating conditions. The simulation results show 24.69% enhancement in hydrogen production in comparison with TCMR. Furthermore, 14.39% and 15.78% improvement in the methanol yield can be achieved compared with TCMR and CR, respectively.