Numerical investigation of steam methane reforming with CO2-capture in bubbling fluidized bed reactors

• A dynamic one-dimensional two-fluid model for gas–solid flow has been implemented.
• Simulation of the SMR and the novel SE-SMR processes
• Effect of model reduction is revealed through comparison with a two-dimensional model.
• Opposite to the Kunii–Levenspiel type of models, the bed expansion is predicted.
• The chemical performance is mainly determined by the temperature in the bed and not fluid dynamics.

The aim of the present study is to investigate the performance of a dynamic one-dimensional multi-component model for two-phase flows which includes heat- and mass transfer processes. The model is intended for reactive gas–solid flows in bubbling fluidized bed reactors. In particular, the model is applied to the steam-methane reforming (SMR) process and the novel sorption-enhanced steam-methane reforming (SE-SMR) technology.The one-dimensional two-fluid model is subjected to a sensitivity study of important operation conditions. Moreover, the effect of model reduction is revealed by comparing the one-dimensional model predictions to the simulation results of a two-dimensional model. The effect of model reduction is investigated for more complex flows than previous studied for the present model. Even for more complex flows in bubbling bed reactors, the results reveal that the chemical process performance of the reactor to a large extent is determined by the imposed temperature in the reactor. As opposite to the Kunii–Levenspiel type of models, the one-dimensional model provides a prediction of the bed expansion, and thus provides an improvement compared to the fundamental models. Moreover, model reduction with respect to the number of independent space variables is favorable considering computational cost, but on the cost of loss in the flow details.