Modeling temperature profiles of a catalytic autothermal methane reformer with Ni catalyst

In this work, a one-dimensional heterogeneous model for the autothermal reforming of methane in a catalytic (Ni/Al2O3 catalyst) fixed-bed reactor is proposed. The kinetic model implements an indirect reaction scheme and includes a reduction factor that is dependent on the oxygen concentration. Such factors delay the reforming and water-gas shift reactions, with respect to the oxidation reactions. Experiments at different steam-tomethane ratios and feed flow rates were conducted in a small-scale reactor to identify and validate the proposed mathematical model. To this end, temperature profiles in the solid phase were measured with an infrared camera. The agreement between experimental data and model predictions is very good for all the investigated operating conditions. In particular, the model predicts the strong separation between the oxidation and the experimentally observed reforming zones well.