Influence of channel dimensions and operational parameters on methane dry-reforming reaction in a catalytic wall-plate reactor and its design methodology

Abstract

Activity tests of methane dry-reforming were conducted using a catalytic wall-plate reactor (CWPR). As reported in previous work, the CWPR can suppress channel blockage by carbon deposition. The prepared CWPR can be used to investigate the influence of molecular diffusion, convective flow and reactions on the reactor performance by changing the reaction channel's dimensions. Necessary constraints are expressed in universal form by a dimensionless modulus as the modified Peclet number and the second Damköhler number ≪ 0.1, and through reaction tests and kinetics analyses. The CWPR can be scaled up easily by multiplying channels and/or stacking multiple plates. The CWPR will help to develop compact chemical processes, such as methane dry-reforming as conducted in this study, which require long operation times without channel blockage.