THEORETICAL STUDY OF DECOMPOSITION OF METHANE IN ITS MIXTURE WITH HYDROGEN DURING FLOW IN A CYLINDRICAL REACTOR.

The authors report a theoretical study of the production of carbon during the decomposition of methane in mixtures with hydrogen under conditions of flow of these mixtures through a cylindrical reactor with a given temperature gradient. To obtain the numerical solution of a system of differential equation of chemical kinetics, we used the Rosenbrock method, which excludes iteration and inversion of matrices of a substep. It is found that the active formation of the carbon begins at temperatures of 1750-1950 degree K and rapidly reaches maximum values. Increase in the content of solid carbon can be attained by lowering the initial flow rate, which is equivalent to increase in the residence time in the reactor. However, even at the maximum residence time, corresponding to the real process, the equilibrium value is not achieved.