Integrating chemical kinetics with CFD modeling for autothermal reforming of biogas

Using biogas for hydrogen production via autothermal reforming (ATR) can potentially increase the energy conversion efficiency and correspondingly reduce environmental impact. The present study aimed to investigate the performance and characteristics of biogas ATR. A two-dimensional numerical model was developed based on the integration of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and chemical kinetics. The mass transport, chemical reactions and heat transfer can be analyzed simultaneously in the porous domain. The results show that the presence of CO2 in the feedstock will reduce the performance of the biogas ATR. The effects of operating and feeding conditions were examined and the optimal conditions were identified. Operating the reformer with the steam-to-CH4 ratio (S/CH4) and air-to-CH4 ratio (A/CH4) equal to 0.5 and 2, respectively, can achieve high H2 concentration, while operation with S/CH4 and A/CH4 equal to 4.5 and 2, respectively, can achieve high energy efficiency. The results also show that using either H2 or O2 membrane in the reformer can enhance the biogas autothermal reforming performance by producing high concentration of H2 (40–65%) and solving the harmful hot spot problems.