Low temperature catalytic steam reforming of propane–methane mixture into methane-rich gas: Experiment and macrokinetic modeling

• Published in: Fuel (Guildford) Vol. 135; pp. 76 - 82
• Main Authors: Zyryanova, М.М., Snytnikov, P.V., Shigarov, A.B., Belyaev, V.D., Kirillov, V.A., Sobyanin, V.A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Russian
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2014; Elsevier
• Subjects: Catalytic steam prereforming; Macrokinetic modeling; Methane-rich gas; Propane; Utilization of associated petroleum gas; Macrokinetic modeling; Methane-rich gas; Propane; Utilization of associated petroleum gas; Catalytic steam prereforming
• ISSN: 0016-2361; 1873-7153
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fuel.2014.06.032

[Display omitted] •Low temperature catalytic steam reforming of C3H8–CH4 mixture simulation was studied.•Two-step macro-kinetic scheme describing the course of the process was suggested.•Mathematical modeling of the experimental data obtained was carried out. Steam reforming of propane–methane mixture into methane-rich gas was studied in a fixed-bed continuous-flow reactor in a temperature interval of 150–325°C under atmospheric pressure over Ni-based catalyst. It was found that the catalyst had good performance under low steam-to-carbon ratio of 0.39–0.58 and provided equilibrium product distribution at GHSV=670–3100h−1. Macrokinetic modeling of the experimental data obtained was performed in the framework of isothermal plug-flow reactor model. For the first time the two-step macro-kinetic scheme was suggested, that includes the reactions of irreversible propane steam reforming (first-order on propane): C3H8+6H2O→3CO2+10H2 with activation energy 112kJ/mole and reversible CO2 methanation (first-order on hydrogen): CO2+4H2⇄ CH4+2H2O with activation energy 50kJ/mole. It was shown that the proposed scheme describes quantitatively all the experimental results.