Effects of system parameters on production of hydrogen in adsorption-enhanced steam-methane reforming reaction

  • Yi-Hung Chen, Department of Chemical and Material Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Taiwan
  • Yun-Hsuan Huang, Department of Chemical and Material Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Taiwan
  • Rong-Hsien Lin, Department of Chemical and Material Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Taiwan
  • Cheng-Hsien Tsai, Department of Chemical and Material Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Taiwan
  • Chien-Chung Huang, Energy& Environment Research Lab, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Taiwan
  • Jie-Ren Ku, Energy& Environment Research Lab, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Taiwan
  • Ming-Shan Jeng, Energy& Environment Research Lab, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Taiwan
  • Fang-Hei Tsau, Energy& Environment Research Lab, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Taiwan

    • The effects of the system parameters on the production of hydrogen in the adsorption-enhanced steam-methane reforming reaction are studied. Recently, the adsorption-enhanced steam-methane reforming reaction has been used for the production of hydrogen in the plants and laboratories. The dynamic model is developed to describe the non-isothermal, non-adiabatic, and non-isobaric adsorption-enhanced steam-methane reforming process. The validity of the present model is demonstrated by comparing the simulation with the previous studies. As an adsorption-enhanced steam-methane reforming reaction starts, the molar fractions of methane and steam monotonously decrease from the inlet to the outlet of the reactor while that of hydrogen simultaneously increases. Note that the production of hydrogen would decrease with time because of the decreasing adsorption capacity of adsorbent for carbon dioxide. Therefore, there certainly exists a temporary and unsteady period before the system reaches steady state. The concerned system parameters including the initial superficial velocity of gas phase, Langmuir model constant for CO2, overall bed-wall heat-transfer coefficient, mass of adsorbent per unit bed volume, mass of catalyst per unit bed volume, and pellet porosity are examined. As a result, the proposed dynamic model is useful for proper evaluation of the effects of the system parameters in the adsorption-enhanced steam-methane reforming reaction.