Abstract Pd-based membranes are the most studied in applications of membrane reactors in the field of high grade hydrogen production. The main issues of Pd-membranes such as high cost and relatively low hydrogen permeability limit their wide development at larger scale, favoring other inorganic materials such as silica to be used as membrane for hydrogen generation/purification. Therefore, this theoretical study aims to evaluate the performance of silica (4 mm of thickness and 5 cm of active length) and Pd Ag (50 μm thick and 5 cm of active length) membrane reactors exercised at the same operating conditions and using the same reaction kinetics to produce hydrogen from methanol steam reforming reaction. Furthermore, an equivalent traditional reactor is studied for comparison. A computational fluid dynamics model was developed, firstly validating the former with experimental literature data. The effects of reaction pressure and temperature on the reactors performance in terms of hydrogen yield, methanol conversion and CO selectivity were hence studied and discussed. The simulations via CFD method indicated that the silica membrane reactor results to be the best solution over the Pd Ag MR and the TR as well, presenting the best simulation results at 513 K, 10 bar, sweep-factor = 6, GHSV = 6000 h−1 and feed molar ratio = 3/1 with CO selectivity equal to 0.04%, methanol conversion and hydrogen yield >90%.

中文翻译：

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用于制氢的甲醇蒸汽重整：基于 CFD 方法的二氧化硅和 Pd 基膜反应器之间的比较建模研究

摘要 Pd基膜是膜反应器在高品位制氢领域应用研究最多的一种。钯膜的主要问题，如成本高和氢渗透率相对较低，限制了它们在更大规模的广泛发展，有利于其他无机材料（如二氧化硅）用作膜进行氢气产生/纯化。因此，本理论研究旨在评估二氧化硅（4 mm 厚和 5 cm 有效长度）和 Pd Ag（50 μm 厚和 5 cm 有效长度）膜反应器在相同操作条件下和使用相同的操作条件下的性能。从甲醇蒸汽重整反应生产氢气的反应动力学。此外，研究了等效的传统反应器以进行比较。开发了计算流体动力学模型，首先用实验文献数据验证前者。因此，研究和讨论了反应压力和温度对反应器性能的影响，包括氢气产率、甲醇转化率和 CO 选择性。通过 CFD 方法的模拟表明，二氧化硅膜反应器的结果也是 Pd Ag MR 和 TR 的最佳解决方案，在 513 K、10 bar、扫描因子 = 6、GHSV = 6000 h 下呈现最佳模拟结果-1 且进料摩尔比 = 3/1，CO 选择性等于 0.04%，甲醇转化率和氢气产率 >90%。