SIMULATION OF CO2 HYDROGENATION USING CERAMIC MEMBRANE REACTOR

Abstract

Hydrogenation of carbon dioxide into some useful products like methanol is considered as useful method to recycle the carbon into chemical process and a method to mitigate the greenhouse effect, caused by the significant rise in CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Methanol, the product obtained from hydrogenation of CO2 is a key component for producing various organic chemicals such as acetic acid, methylamine and formaldehyde. Methanol, commonly considered as a hydrogen source and / or hydrogen carrier. In order to increase the thermodynamically limited synthesis of methanol, in situ removal of condensable products like water and methanol from reacting system is necessary. The selective removal of product from reacting system by use of membrane fulfils the criteria for increasing methanol synthesis. In this dissertation work, a steady state model for isothermal conditions has been developed which constitutes 10 differential equations along withl 0 boundary conditions for state variables and appropriate constitutive relationship. The model equations are solved by using MATLAB ODE (ordinary differential equation) solvers. Ceramic membrane with appropriate values of species permeance is considered for the membrane reactor modelling. The purpose of this study is to investigate the possibility to increase the CO2 conversion into methanol with respect to traditional reactor. A comparison study is performed with ceramic membrane and a traditional reactor for CO2 conversion, CH3OH yield and CH3OH selectivity. As a result of a simulation of it is concluded that membrane reactor is showing better performance with respect to traditional reactor at any temperature.