A Numerical Study on the Effectiveness Factor of Ni Catalyst Pellets for Steam-Methane Reforming

수증기-메탄개질용 Ni 촉매의 유용도에 관한 수치적 연구

Reformers which produce hydrogen from natural gas are essential for the operation of residential PEM fuel cells. For this purpose, steam-methane reforming reactions with Ni catalysts is primarily utilized. Commercial Ni catalysts are generally made to have porous pellet shapes in which Ni catalyst particles are uniformly dispersed over Alumina support structures. This study numerically investigates the reduction of catalyst effectiveness due to the mass transport resistances posed by porous structures of spherical catalyst pellets. The multi-component diffusion through porous media and the accurate kinetics of reforming reaction is fully considered in the numerical model. The preliminary results on the variation of the effectiveness factor according to different operation conditions are presented, which is planned to be used to develop correlations in future studies.