A spatially resolved physical model of an ion transport membrane reactor for system development

Abstract

The ion transport membrane (ITM) reactor has been developed as a potential novel syngas production technology that includes both air separation and fuel conversion. To successfully commercialize the ITM reactor, it is necessary to optimize its operation.

In this study, a spatially resolved physical model of the ITM reactor for syngas production has been developed to investigate the ITM reactor characteristics using Aspen Plus((R)), which will be extended to the system level simulation. The approach captures spatial variations in the crucial physics of heat transfer, oxygen permeation and reaction kinetics in a manner that is simple enough to make the model amenable to ITM reactor system simulations development. To simulate the partial oxidation of methane (POM), methane oxidation, steam reforming of methane, and dry reforming of methane have been considered. By varying the carbon space velocity, CH4 conversion, CO selectivity, H-2-CO ratio, and species molar flow rates have been calculated. Moreover, oxygen partial pressure and temperature distribution on the feed and sweep sides are presented in the paper. This study provides the basic insight to establish the optimal system designs and operating schemes of the ITM reactor by analyzing the reaction kinetics distribution of the POM and oxygen permeation rates.