Computational fluid dynamics study of the dry reforming of methane over Ni/Al2O3 catalyst in a membrane reactor. Coke deposition

This work investigates the dry reforming of CH4 as an important process for the conversion of greenhouse gases to synthesis gas. The mixture of methane and CO2 is readily available in the greenhouse gas which makes realization of dry reforming of methane process more convenient. The paper is an attempt to numerically analyse by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) the coking and gasification mechanisms in the lab-scale membrane module with a fixed-bed supported nickel catalyst (Ni/Al2O3). The concentrations and molar fluxes obtained by the simulation are compared with the experimental profiles to validate the CFD model. It was found that working in a catalytic fixed-bed membrane reactor, in the case of the dry reforming of methane and under specific conditions, was not critical, from the point of view of catalyst deactivation.