MODELING OF MEMBRANE REACTOR FOR HYDROGEN PRODUCTION BY STEAM REFORMING OF ETHANOL

Abstract

A mathematical modeling framework was developed for ethanol steam reforming reaction and the performance of a conventional reactor packed with nickel based catalyst and a palladium based membrane reactor was compared. The effect of different model parameters such as temperature, pressure, sweep gas flow rate and catalyst loading on the performance of the tubular flow reactor was studied and the results were compared with the results obtained for membrane reactor. .Model developed was simulated and validated for the traditional flow reactor with the experimental results obtained for ethanol stem reforming reaction over nickel-ceria-zirconia catalysts. Simulation results showed a good agreement with the experimental data and the results obtained also confirmed that both the ethanol conversion and hydrogen production can be increased by using a membrane reactor as compared to a traditional flow reactor under the same reaction condition.