Modeling and simulation of natural gas reforming by membrane

Abstract

Hydrogen, which can be generated from several sources, has the potential to be a clean energy carrier, producing only water after combustion. Around half of the world's hydrogen production capacity is created each year, mostly from fossil fuels using natural gas reforming techniques such as steam reforming, partial oxidation, dry reforming, autothermal reforming, and trireforming. The most established, often employed, and widely utilized technique for producing hydrogen is methane steam reforming. In fixed-bed reactors, this reaction is frequently carried out. There are several separation processes to separate hydrogen with desired purity. Membrane reactors are merely single-stage devices that allow the reaction and separation of one or more products simultaneously. They are an excellent alternative to fixed-bed reactors. Membrane reactors have been investigated as a novel technique for the intensification of natural gas reforming processes to produce pure hydrogen. Mathematical modeling of membrane reactors is critical in selecting design and operational parameters to improve reactor performance. This review chapter summarizes and compares packed- and fluidized-bed membrane reformers for hydrogen production from natural gas. It includes an overview of the fundamentals of membrane reformers and various types of modeling methodologies, including pseudohomogeneous, heterogeneous, and two-phase models. Furthermore, the impact of operational parameters of methane steam membrane reformer, such as reaction temperature, pressure, residence time, and H2O/CH4 molar ratio, is explored on methane conversion and hydrogen yield. The implications of hydrogen transfer from the reaction side to the permeation side in membrane reformers will be explored, because the influence of this transfer on the efficiency of membrane reformers will be more acceptable than traditional ones. © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.