Catalytic Membrane Reactor. Kinetic Modeling of Carbon Dioxide Conversion of Methane

Abstract

A reactor (contactor) with a membrane catalyst is considered as one of the types of heterogeneous catalytic apparatuses. A kinetic model is developed to describe the carbon dioxide reforming of methane in the presence of molybdenum carbide both in the contactor and in a reactor with a fixed bed catalyst. It is shown that such modeling is possible on the basis of a common system of differential equations, and parameters of the model allow one to estimate the acceleration of the reaction due to the membrane effect. On the basis of the activation energies of the reaction experimentally estimated for both reactors, it is concluded that in the contactor, the pore-diffusion resistance plays an important role. In contrast, in a traditional heterogeneous catalytic reactor, the process is controlled by the mass transfer to the external surface of the catalyst while the inner surface of pores stays virtually inaccessible.