Wall-to-particle heat transfer in steam reformer tubes: CFD comparison of catalyst particles

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to simulate non-reacting heat transfer in a steam reforming packed reactor tube of tube-to-particle diameter ratio (NN) equal to 4, with cylindrical multi-hole catalyst particles. These simulations extend those of our previous study [Nijemeisland, M., Dixon, A.G., Stitt, E.H., 2004. Catalyst design by CFD for heat transfer and reaction in steam reforming. Chemical Engineering Science 59, 5185–5191] to provide accurate tube wall temperatures, runs at constant pressure drop in addition to those at constant mass flow rate and simulations of particles with different sizes of holes. At constant pressure drop, particles with higher void fractions allowed higher mass flow rates, resulting in tube wall temperatures and radial temperature profiles in order: solid cylinders  >>one-hole particles  >>multi-hole particles. Little difference was seen between three-hole and four-hole particles. The particles with multiple holes gave a substantial reduction in tube wall temperature, with only a small decrease in core tube heat transfer. The effect of hole size was small, for the cases investigated in this study.