Methane is an optimal fuel for hydrogen production due to its rich resource and its high ratio of hydrogen to carbon. In the paper a novel porous media reactor with external Swiss-roll to convert methane to hydrogen is presented, Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) combined with detailed chemical kinetics was employed to model the super adiabatic combustion of methane-air in the reactor, specially the influence of equivalence ratio on methane/air rich oxidation in reactor is investigated numerically. A two-dimensional numerical model of the reactor was developed including P-1 radiation model and a methane oxidation mechanism with 17 species and 58 elemental reactions. The effects of equivalence ratio and premixed gas velocity on the highest temperature of burning zone, the components of synthesis gas and methane conversion efficiency were studied and compared with the experimental results. The results show that combustion temperature inside the porous media far exceeded the adiabatic combustion temperature, and the hydrogen production on the condition of super adiabatic combustion is realized. The results also show that the combination of CFD with detailed chemical kinetics gives good performance for modelling the rich combustion of methane/air in porous media reactors with external Swiss-roll.
Pedersen M H, Chan L, Mastorakos E. 2005. Hydrogen production from rich combustion in porous media. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. Vol 30. May. pp579-592. UK.
Li G N, Zhou H, Qian X P, et al. 2008. Determination of hydrogen production from rich filtration combustion with detailed kinetics based CFD method. Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering. Vol 16. No 2. pp292-298. China.
Mujeebu M A, Abdullah M Z, Abu Bakar M Z, et al. 2009. Combustion in porous media and its applications – A comprehensive survey. Journal of Environmental Management. Vol 90, No 8. pp2287-2312. UK.
Mujeebu M A, Abdullah M Z, Abu Bakar M Z, et al. 2009. Applications of porous media combustion technology – A review. Applied Energy. Vol 86. No 9. pp1365-1375. UK.
Weinberg F J, Bartlett T G. 1988. Partial oxidation of fuel-rich mixtures in a spouted bed combustor. Combustion Flame. vol 72. No 3. pp235-239. USA.
Raviraj S D, Janet L E, Carleton F B, et al. 2006. Numerical and experimental study of the conversion of methane to hydrogen in a porous media reactor. Combustion and Flame. Vol 144. November. pp698-709. USA
Brenner G, Pickenäcker K, Pickenäcker O, et al. 2000. Numerical and experimental investigation of matrix-stabilized methane/air combustion in porous inert media. Combustion and Flame. Vol 123. No 1-2. pp201-213. USA.
Ma P Y, Tang Z G & Li Y L, et al. 2010. Conversion of natural gas to hydrogen under super adiabatic rich combustion. Advanced Materials Research. Vols 105-106. pp 701-705. Switzerland
Shi J R, Xie M Z & Zhou L. 2007. 2D numerical modeling and structure improvement of porous medium burner with reciprocating flow. Journal of Combustion Science and Technology. Vol 13. pp280-285. China.
Wang E Y , Wu J X , Liu L S, et al. 2007. Simulation of premixed turbulent combustion in porous inert media based on FLUENT. Journal of HeBei University of Technology. Vol 36. No 2. pp94-99. China.
Bingue J P, Saveliev A V & Kennedy L A. 2004. Optimization of hydrogen production by filtration combustion of methane by oxygen enrichment and depletion. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. Vol 29. January. pp1365-1370. USA.
How to cite this article
Tang, Z., Li, Y., Cheng, J. and Ma, P. (2010). 'Simulation of Hydrogen Production by Methane Rich Combustion in Porous Media Reactor with External Swiss-roll'. SET Proceedings, 9, pp. 1-7. https://doi.org/10.65582/set.2010.112