Abstract
We did a numerical examination of the heat transfer and chemical reaction characteristics in methane-steam reforming, which is widely used in the petrochemical industry. In fact, the prediction of temperature variation along the reformer tube is essential for methanesteam reforming, as it also causes material failures, such as thermal stress concentration. Thus, the influence of the Reynolds number and the porosity variation of catalysts inside the reformer tube on methane-steam reforming was examined. The commercial code of Fluent (V. 13.0) was used for the current simulation. An axisymmetric reformer tube with porous catalytic medium was modeled and two kinds of porosity, which ranged from 0.35 to 0.50, were adopted. The temperature of the fuel gas and the external heat source were 780.15 K and 1291.55 K, respectively. The standard k-ε model and the eddy-dissipation-concept model were employed. In addition, conjugated heat transfer was considered for estimation of the heat transfer from the external heat sources to the reformer tube. The Discrete ordinate (DO) model for radiation effects was also used. It was found that the radial temperature distribution of the high Reynolds number is lower than that of the low Reynolds number. The axial temperature distribution varied because of the heat transfer from the external heat source and the dominant endothermic chemical reactions. The mole fraction of products increased as the Reynolds number decreased. Both radial and axial temperature increased inside the reformer tube as the porosity was denser. However, the effect of porosity variation on the methane-steam reforming could not be distinctively observed in this study.
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Jeongmin Lee received his B.S and M.S degrees from Chung-Ang University in 2013 and in 2015. He is a researcher at the School of Mechanical Engineering at the Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea. His research interests are computational fluid dynamics, turbulent flows, and heat transfer related to phase change.
Jun Hee Han received his B.S degree from Yeung-Nam University in 2015. He is currently M.S student in School of Mechanical Systems Engineering at the Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea. He is now studying computational fluid dynamics for the power plants.
Joo Hyun Moon received B.S. (2011) and M.S. (2013) from Chung-Ang University. He is now a Ph.D. student in School of Mechanical Engineering at the Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea. His research interests are droplet impingement, interfacial phenomena, and heat transfer.
Chan Ho Jeong received his B.S from Chung-Ang University in 2014. He is currently an M.S. candidate in School of Mechanical Engineering at the Chung- Ang University, Seoul, Korea. His research interests are phase change heat transfer related to frosting and defrosting, fluid mechanics and thermal engineering.
Myeongmin Kim received his B.S. from Sam-Cheok University in 2000. His M.S. is from Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea. His research interests are in computational fluid dynamics, heat transfer system design using CFD analysis.
Ji Yoon Kim received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Advanced Materials Engineering from Kook-Min University, Seoul, Korea. He is now a research professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering at Chung-Ang University.
Seong Hyuk Lee received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea. He is now a professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering there. He has explored many emerging topics regarding thermal engineering, such as interfacial phenomena, phase change control using surface treatments, computational fluid dynamics for the power plants, thermal design using CFD, and microscale energy transport.
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Lee, J., Han, J.H., Moon, J.H. et al. Characteristics of heat transfer and chemical reaction of methane-steam reforming in a porous catalytic medium. J Mech Sci Technol 30, 473–481 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-015-1252-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-015-1252-1