H2 production in silica membrane reactor during water gas shift reaction: modeling study

The main aim of this study is the investigation silica membrane reactor (MR) performance during water gas shift (WGS) reaction. To this purpose, a one-dimensional isothermal numerical model was developed and its validation was realized by comparing the theoretical results with experimental data. A good agreement between modeling results and experimental data was found. After model validation, the effect of the some important operating parameters (temperature and feed molar ratio) on the performance of silica MR was studied in terms of conversion and hydrogen recovery. As a special consequence, simulation results indicate that the reaction temperature and feed molar ratio have positive effect on silica MR performance. Moreover, the hydrogen recovery is decreased by increasing the feed molar ratio from 1 to 4, while over 4, it was approximately constant. In particular, at reaction pressure of 3 bar, temperature of 553 K and GHV of 2000 h-1, carbon dioxide conversion and hydrogen recovery was achieved 98.3% and 31.4%, respectively

Keywords:

Silica membrane reactor , Modelling , WGS , Hydrogen production