Modeling and simulation of adiabatic fixed-bed reactor for the partial oxidation of methane to synthesis gas

Adiabatic fixed-bed reactor for the catalytic partial oxidation of methane to synthesis gas on a commercial supported Ni catalyst at high temperature and pressure was simulated using a one-dimensional heterogeneous reactor model. Both external concentration and temperature steady-state gradients as well as intra-particle concentration gradients are taken into account. The intrinsic kinetics of the oxidation together reforming and water-gas shift reactions were taken from Numaguchi and Kikuchi (1988).The gas-phase and solid-phase continuity and energy differential equations are solved simultaneously using MATLAB software. In this program the finite volume method is used for solving the corresponding continuity equations in solid phase (catalyst). The data taken from the literature is applied to the proposed model to perform the simulation and the simulated results are then compared.

Keywords:

Simulation , Adiabatic fixed-bed reactor , Partial oxidation , Finite volume