Operation of a Tube Wall Methanation Reactor

Abstract

The design and operation of a PDU-scale tube wall methanation system are discussed. The tube wall reactor was constructed from a stainless steel pipe with a surrounding jacket. The inside surface of the tube was flame sprayed with Raney nickel catalyst for 14 ft of length. The catalyst coating was activated by leaching with a caustic solution. A liquid coolant in the outer shell of the reactor removed the heat of methanation and maintained the system at near isothermal conditions. Exposure velocity and recycle ratio were varied during the run. Concentration and temperature profiles were periodically measured along the length of the catalyst bed. Catalyst performance, methane production, deactivation, and other results are presented for the test which was terminated after 1179 h on stream.

Carbon monoxide hydrogenation over cobalt catalyst in a tube‐wall reactor: Part 1. Experimental studies

“…It is easier to operate, possesses negligible pressure drop, and has excellent temperature control and long catalyst life (Kapoor et al, 1986). This reactor was developed at the Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center for the methanation of the synthesis gas (Field and Forney, 1966;Demeter et al, 1967;Haynes et al, 1970Haynes et al, , 1972Forney and Haynes, 1971;Mills and Steffegen, 1973;Pennline et al, 1979Pennline et al, , 1980. Also, TWR has been used for FT synthesis studies using iron catalysts in the past (Zarochak et al, 1982;Kapoor et al, 1986).…”

An explicit method of design of non‐isothermal tube‐wall reactor with volume change

“…(1979) during experiments in a core type tube-wall mcthanation reactor under laminar flow conditions. Data of Pennline et al (1979) are also presented in Figure 5 for comparison. Baird et al ( 1980) also obtained the hot spot temperature usually at the reactor inlet during Fischer-Tropsch synthesis in a tube-wall reactor.…”

Tube‐wall reactor modelling for multiple reaction networks with non‐linear kinetics and volume change

“…The main advantages of the TWR system are: a) combined functions of a reactor and a heat exchanger in one vessel, b) minimal recycle flow of product gas for control of the exothermic heat of reaction, c) negligible pressure drop across the reactor, and d) nearly isothermal reaction conditions. The application of catalyst-coated wall reactors has been investigated for various exothermic reactions such as oxidation of sulphur dioxide using vanadium oxide (Baron et al, 1952), hydrogenation of carbon monoxide to methane (Gilkeson et al, 1953;Pennline et al, 1979;Goyal et al 1982 and, oxidation of ammonia using various oxide catalysts (Johnstone et al, 1954), catalytic combustion of hydrogen over platinized alumina (Lyczkowski et al, 1967), oxidation of naphthalene over V205 catalyst Carberry, 1975 and1976), oxidation of o-xylene over V205 catalyst (Chandrasekharan and Calderbank, 1980) and conversion of synthesis gas to gaseous and liquid fuels via Fischer-Tropsch (F -T) synthesis (O'Hara et al, 1976;Baird et al, 1980;Zarochak et al, 1982;Goyal, 1984;Kapoor, 1985; Kapoor et al, 1986). In the TWRs the reactor walls are coated with the catalytic material by means of flame-and plasma-spraying techniques or by wash coating.…”

“…The present work deals with the design of tube-wall reactors for heterogeneously catalyzed simultaneous reactions with general non-linear and mixed type of reaction kinetics under laminar flow conditions. Laminar flow conditions are useful for limiting the rate of heat generation in highly exothermic reaction systems and have been employed previously by many investigators (for example, Lyczkowski et al, 1967;Pennline et al, 1979;Zarochak et al, 1982). A two-dimensional model of non-isothermal tube-wall reactors is developed for the systems in which the volume of reaction mixture varies because of changes in the number of moles due to reactions.…”