Mathematical Modeling of Membrane Reactor Performance for Syngas Production

In this study, a comprehensive mathematical model was developed to predict the membrane reactor performance for production of syngas from methane. In the studied membrane reactor, feed consists of methane and steam was fed to the tube side whereas air was injected to the shell side. The proposed model covers all aspects of major chemical reactions, heat and mass transfer phenomena and oxygen permeation in radial direction through membrane reactor. The equations of heat and mass balances in both shell and tube sides were solved in MATLAB software simultaneously. Developed model can predict the variation of gas compositions and temperature along the axial direction of reactor on both shell and tube sides. After process modeling and computer programming, the model predictions were compared with data presented in the literature and the relative error was calculated. The results show that there are very good agreement between model predictions and reported data.