A comparative computational study of diesel steam reforming in a catalytic plate heat-exchange reactor

A two-dimensional steady-state model of a catalytic plate reactor for diesel steam reforming is developed. Heat is provided indirectly to endothermic reforming sites by flue gas from a SOFC tail-gas burner. Two experimentally validated kinetic models on diesel reforming on platinum (Pt) catalyst were implemented for a comparative study; the model of Parmar et al., Fuel. 2010;89(6):1212-1220 for a Pt/Al2O3 and the model of Shi et al., International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. 2009;34(18):7666-7675 for a Pt/Gd-CeO2 (GDC). The kinetic models were compared for: species concentration, approach to equilibrium, gas hourly space velocity and effectiveness factor. Cocurrent flow arrangement between the reforming and the flue gas channels showed better heat transfer compared to counter-current flow arrangement. The comparison between the two kinetic models showed that different supports play significant role in the final design of a reactor. The study also determined that initial 20% of the plate reactor has high diffusion limitation suggesting to use graded catalyst to optimize the plate reactor performance. (c) 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 1102-1113, 2017