Abstract: A numerical study of steam methane reforming on a porous pellet of the industrial catalyst 8 %Ni/α-Al2O3 was carried out within the parallel pore model and global kinetics (Numaguchi & Kikuchi). The spherically symmetric reaction-diffusion problem was based on the equations of multicomponent diffusion under isothermal conditions inside the pellet. The exact value of the apparent reaction rates at 1, 3, 10 atm pressure was compared with the result of an approximate approach that uses the mixture composition on the catalyst surface, the Thiele modulus and the correction factors for reverse reactions. The mixture composition on the pellet surface and its temperature were varied based on the calculated profiles along the length of a tubular reformer with wall heating (H2O/CH4 = 3 at the inlet, 500–700 ◦C). It is shown that the approximate approach is quite accurate for the apparent rate of methane steam reforming at a pressure of 1 atm, when the effect of the reverse reaction inside the catalyst pellet is insignificant. As the pressure increases to 3–10 atm, the approximate approach increasingly overestimates the actual efficiency of the catalyst. However, as confirmed by comparative modeling of a single-tube reformer the proposed approach efficiently approximates these cases as well.

Cite: Shigarov A.B.
Approximate Calculation of the Apparent Reaction Rate of Methane Steam Reforming on an Industrial Nickel Catalyst for Time-Efficient Computations
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. 2025. V.177. 151469 . DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2025.151469 WOS Scopus AN OpenAlex

Dates:

Submitted:	Jun 19, 2025
Accepted:	Sep 8, 2025
Published print:	Oct 13, 2025

Identifiers:

Web of science:	WOS:001575024600001
Scopus:	2-s2.0-105015978718
Chemical Abstracts:	2025:2303336
OpenAlex:	W4414280911

Citing: Пока нет цитирований

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