Effect of inert metal foam matrices on hydrogen production intensification of methane steam reforming process in wall-coated reformer

Numerical modeling of a heated mixture of methane with steam in 2D plane Wall-Coated Steam Methane Reformer (WC-SMR) with surface catalytic reaction at industrial conditions has been performed. The modeling was performed within the framework of Navier-Stokes equations for a laminar flow of a multi-component compressible gas. The influence of the insertion of non-catalytic nickel-based metal foam matrices in the catalytic zone of the WC-SMR on the hydrodynamic, thermal and mass behaviors of the gas mixture and its distribution along the reactor have been investigated. Three different Metal Foam (MF) samples have been investigated and then compared: Ni-Foam, Ni-Cr-Foam and Ni-Fe-Cr-Foam. It has been shown that not only the use of metal foam matrices but also their thermo-physical properties are important to improving the WC-SMR efficiency. It is demonstrated that such material can bring a significant enhancement for hydrogen production, heat and mass transfer processes. 16.91% of improvement in terms of H-2 production is realized. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.