CFD simulation of a methane steam reforming reactor

An industrial steam reforming reactor producing hydrogen is simulated using the three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technique. The fixed bed reactor is filled with a nickel oxide catalyst. Effects of operating conditions such as temperature and steam to methane ratio on the reformer performance are investigated. Simulation results show that a steam to carbon ratio of more than 4 increases in the ratio does not have a notable influence on methane yield. Moreover, it shows that methane conversion is strongly affected by reactor skin temperature and higher skin temperature leads to an increase in the methane conversion. The results were successfully validated with industrial data obtained from a hydrogen plant at a Tehran refinery.