Modelling of a Packed Bed Reactor for Dry Reform of Methane

Abstract

In the present article, the mathematical modeling of a fixed bed reactor to produce synthesis gas (mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide) through the dry reforming reaction of natural gas was performed. This product is an important intermediary of the petrochemical industry, being used as reagent in the production of a vast amount of chemicals, fuels and solvents. Reforming with carbon dioxide (dry reforming) has a significant environmental bias, as it uses two of the largest greenhouse-enhancing agents to produce products of interest to the chemical industry. Thus, an adiabatic bed-type reactor (with Ni/Al2O3 as catalyst) was modeled in order to trace the conversion, temperature and pressure profiles in the equipment and to size it. The three ordinary differential equations of the mass, temperature and pressure balances were simultaneously solved by the numerical method of Euler (in Microsoft Excel), resulting in an equipment with 3 ton of catalyst and a minimum length of 3.15 m.