Modeling and simulation of the reforming behavior of a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide in a direct-contact bubble reactor (DCBR) was described. The endothermic catalytic reaction obeys the kinetics of the methane dry reforming in a direct-contact bubble reaction system containing an active catalyst, i.e., Ni-Al2O3 catalyst and molten salt mixture system. The reforming process was simulated, using commercial software for chemical kinetics, for a single reactor model, to examine a kinetic model based on the postulated heterogeneous reaction mechanism, in the temperature range 600-900 degrees C, at 1 atm. The simulated data were evaluated and validated with the measured data from a laboratory reformer. The catalyst activity in the DCBR was characterized using a catalyst bubble contact model, in terms of the total-catalytic active surface area. We used the detailed simulation studies to identify the essential characteristics of the reaction mechanism in a DCBR. (c) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.