Heat Extraction from a Flow Reversal Reactor in Lean Methane Combustion

This paper describes the use of a flow reversal reactor for the destruction of lean emissions of methane with ambient temperature feed. The reactor was comprised of two packed bed reactors and inert sections to act as heat traps. Inert sections were one of ceramic monolith, metal monolith or packed beds of ceramic spheres. In this paper, the effect on reactor performance of the extraction of a portion of the process stream between the two reactor sections is illustrated. The effect of the inert type on the axial and radial temperature profiles, the rate of heat accumulation and the reactor stability is presented. It is observed that the packing type has a significant influence on the temperature profiles, especially the radial profiles. For a metal monolith, the magnitude of the radial gradients was reduced, in addition to an overall reduction in temperature being achieved. For the metal monolith, the decrease in width of the axial temperature profile was most pronounced.