A comparative simulation of glycerol steam reforming with foam and conventional pellet catalysts in packed bed reactor

Abstract

This research aimed to study the effect of different catalyst structures to the hydrogen production process with glycerol steam reforming in packed bed reactors via the COMSOL Multiphysics program. 2D pseudo-homogeneous steady-state model of a 6-inch diameter adiabatic reactor has been developed to describe a transport phenomenon inside the packed bed reactors with two different catalyst structures of conventional 1-inch pellet catalyst and 10-30PPI foam catalyst. The simulated results show that the novel foam catalyst improved the process performance in terms of pressure drop and hydrogen yield comparing to the conventional 1-inch pellet catalyst. The reactor packed with the conventional 1-inch pellet catalyst provided the maximum hydrogen yield of 55% at 15 m reactor length, while the novel foam catalyst provided the maximum hydrogen yield of 60% at only one-third of reactor length and reduced 95% of pressure drop. However, the novel foam catalyst exhibited a 15% temperature dropping from its initial temperature, while the conventional pellet catalyst dropped only 8%. The greater temperature dropping of the novel foam catalyst affected the chemical equilibrium by shifting the main reaction to the side reaction and producing more by-products. From the simulation results, the open-cell structure of the novel foam catalyst increases the passage flow of fluid thereby, the diffusion limit of the conventional catalyst has been diminished. The novel foam catalyst can be further used in the packed bed reactor to improve the process performance of the glycerol steam reforming process.