Demonstration of a control system for combustion of lean hydrocarbon emissions in a reverse flow reactor

In this work, the performance of a simple logic-based controller for a reverse flow reactor (RFR) has been tested experimentally. The controller is a hybrid system using the inside reactor temperature as the controlled variable, and the switch of the flow direction as the manipulated variable. Three different control logic rules (depending on the point selected to measure the inside reactor temperature) have been compared for the catalytic combustion of methane in a bench-scale RFR unit. A procedure for tuning the controllers was established. The controller that measures the temperature in the middle of the reactor showed the best performance, as it provided complete methane conversion with high capacity to overcome both low and high feed concentration disturbances.