Kinetic studies of the autothermal reforming of tetradecane over Pt/Al2O3 catalyst in a fixed-bed reactor

Kinetics of autothermal reforming (ATR) of tetradecane on Pt-Al2O3 catalyst over the temperature range 750-900 degrees C is investigated. Experimental results obtained from NETL (US-DOE) are used for model parameter estimation and validation. Two Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson (LHHW) type rate models are developed and subjected to parameter estimation and model discrimination. LHHW model in which hydrocarbon is adsorbed on the catalyst surface as alkyl intermediate species by scission of C-H bond gave physically meaningful parameters. Parameters are estimated by using generalized reduced gradient method in spreadsheet and sequential quadratic programming in Matlab. The estimated parameters for the selected model are thermodynamically consistent. The developed kinetic model could capture the experimental behavior of the process and could predict the outlet composition within 25% error. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.