International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Vol.44, No.14, 7073-7082, 2019
Experimental investigation of synthesis gas production by methane reforming with flue gas over a NiO-Al2O3 catalyst: Reforming characteristics and pressure drop
An experimental investigation of methane reforming with flue gases obtained by combustion of methane with the ratio of air to methane of 1 is carried out over NiO-Al2O3 catalyst. The set of experiments was conducted to understand the effects of operational parameters such as temperature, pressure, residence time and inlet gas composition on the conversion of the reactants and the yields of products. It is found that at the residence time above 4 kg(cat) s/mol the methane conversion has a value close to equilibrium. A change in pressure from 1 to 5 bar has a negligible effect on methane conversion, not more than 1-2% for various operating parameters. The steam addition to the inlet reaction gas mixture increases the methane conversion considerably; especially at the temperature range from 500 to 800 degrees C. The steam addition to the inlet mixture has a notable on synthesis gas composition, especially at the temperature range below 700 degrees C. Moreover, the experiments have been carried out to determine the pressure drop and the loss factor in a packed-fixed bed of a methane reformer. A characteristic quadratic dependence of the pressure loss versus velocity Delta p =f (v(2)) is observed for all experiments. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.