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A comparative computational study of diesel steam reforming in a catalytic plate heat‐exchange reactor
Author(s) -
Mundhwa Mayur,
Thurgood Christopher P.,
Dhingra Harsh,
Parmar Rajesh D.,
Peppley Brant A.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.15391
Subject(s) - steam reforming , space velocity , flue gas , diesel fuel , catalysis , chemistry , endothermic process , methane reformer , combustor , thermodynamics , hydrogen production , chemical engineering , nuclear engineering , waste management , combustion , engineering , organic chemistry , physics , adsorption , selectivity
A two‐dimensional steady‐state model of a catalytic plate reactor for diesel steam reforming is developed. Heat is provided indirectly to endothermic reforming sites by flue gas from a SOFC tail‐gas burner. Two experimentally validated kinetic models on diesel reforming on platinum (Pt) catalyst were implemented for a comparative study; the model of Parmar et al., Fuel. 2010;89(6):1212–1220 for a Pt/Al 2 O 3 and the model of Shi et al., International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. 2009;34(18):7666–7675 for a Pt/Gd‐CeO 2 (GDC). The kinetic models were compared for: species concentration, approach to equilibrium, gas hourly space velocity and effectiveness factor. Cocurrent flow arrangement between the reforming and the flue gas channels showed better heat transfer compared to counter‐current flow arrangement. The comparison between the two kinetic models showed that different supports play significant role in the final design of a reactor. The study also determined that initial 20% of the plate reactor has high diffusion limitation suggesting to use graded catalyst to optimize the plate reactor performance. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J , 63: 1102–1113, 2017