Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.15255/CABEQ.2021.1963
One-dimensional Modelling and Optimisation of an Industrial Steam Methane Reformer
M. Sinaei Nobandegani
orcid.org/0000-0002-7792-1348
; Chemical Technology, Luleå University of Technology, SE-971 87 Luleå, Sweden
T. Darbandi
; Luleå University of Technology, Department of Engineering Sciences and Mathematics, Energy Science, Luleå, Sweden
M. Kheirinik
; Persian Gulf Star Oil Company, Bandar Abbas, Hormozgan Province, Iran
M. R. Sardashti Birjandi
; Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, P.O. Box 98164-161, Zahedan, Iran
F. Shahraki
; Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, P.O. Box 98164-161, Zahedan, Iran
L. Yu
; Chemical Technology, Luleå University of Technology, SE-971 87 Luleå, Sweden
Abstract
Steam methane reforming is one of the most promising processes to convert natural gas into valuable products such as hydrogen. In this study, a one-dimensional model was used to model and optimise an industrial steam methane reformer, using mass and thermal balances coupled with pressure drop in the reformer tube. The proposed model was validated by the experimental data. Furthermore, the effects of flowrate and temperature of the feed, tube wall temperature, and tube dimension on the reformer performance were studied. Finally, a multiobjective optimisation was done for methane slip minimisation and hydrogen production maximisation using genetic algorithm. The results illustrated the optimum feed flowrate of 2761.9 kmol h–1 (minimum 32 mol.% produced hydrogen and maximum 0.15 mol.% unreacted methane). This is one of the few studies on investigation of steam methane reformer using a simple and effective model, and genetic algorithm.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Keywords
hydrogen; steam reformer; optimisation; mathematical modelling; reactors
Hrčak ID:
271019
URI
Publication date:
18.1.2022.
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