Local transport and reaction rates in a fixed bed reactor tube: Endothermic steam methane reforming

Resolved-particle 3-D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are presented of endothermic steam methane reforming in a random packed bed of 807 spherical catalyst particles at a tube-to particle diameter ratio of N = 5.96 with constant wall heat flux. The fluid flow field is fully coupled to the temperature and species distributions inside the particles. This enables simulation of diffusion, conduction and reaction inside the catalyst particles, as opposed to only surface reactions. The results illustrate 3-D distributions of flow, temperature, species and reaction rates inside a 0.7 m length of packed tube. These show large variations on near-wall particle external surfaces, and non symmetric distributions inside the catalyst particles on cross-sections through the bed. The detailed CFD approach allows statistical analysis of the particle-to-particle reaction rate variations, the correlation of rate with location in the bed, and the intrinsic variability of radial temperature and species mass fraction profiles. Comparisons to a 1-D reactor tube heterogeneous effective medium model showed that axial profiles of cross-sectional average temperature, species and velocity could not be reproduced using particle-fluid heat and mass transfer coefficients estimated from non-reacting simulations in the same tube. Comparisons to a 2-D reactor tube heterogeneous effective medium model showed good agreement with axial profiles if radial local void fractions and axial velocities were included in the model. Improved agreement with radial temperature profiles resulted from the model with a radially-varying effective radial thermal conductivity. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.