Structured catalytic reactors for steam methane reforming - CFD simulation

Even if steam methane reforming is an old an well developed process, some limitations are still encountered at an industrial scale and limit the effectiveness of the process. These limitations are mainly pressure drop and heat transfer issues. The two aspects are in opposition, since the highest heat transfer wants to be promoted, but it is made at the cost of severe pressure drops. The best compromise has to be found. Structured reactors are in development to counter the limitations of those actual commercial reactors. The ZoneFlowTMreactor is an example of new structured reactor in development. The aim of this master thesis is to investigate on performances of this new ZoneFlow structured reactor. CFD simulations under pilot conditions were performed in order to make predictions, further validated by real pilot scale tests. Finally, a comparison with the actual reactors is provided.