Novel Reactor Design Strategies for Synthesis Gas Production from Natural Gas

Abstract

This work proposes a design for non-catalytic isothermal synthesis gas production from natural gas using two different types of reactors: equilibrium reactor and plug-flow reactor (PFR). The process design was developed using Aspen HYSYS simulations. The obtained results showed that a significant hydrogen purity of 66 mol% can be obtained using equilibrium reactor with recycle compared to 50 mol% using plug-flow reactor. The proposed PFR design was also compared to a similar work in literature involving catalytic operations. As a result, the effectiveness of conventional reactors in the non-catalytic production of synthesis gas with significant hydrogen purity has been proven, presenting an advantage over the catalytic processes represented by the avoidance of the challenges associated with catalytic reactions, such as pressure drop and catalysts deactivation.