Experimental Research on the Thermal Oxidation of Ventilation Air Methane in a Thermal Reverse Flow Reactor

The thermal reverse flow reactor is an effective technical equipment for dealing with ventilation air methane, which has been causing a significant greenhouse effect. An experimental study on the thermal oxidation of ventilation air methane in a thermal reverse flow reactor was conducted. A mixture of domestic gas and ambient air was used to simulate ventilation air methane in the experiments, and the methane conversion efficiency was analyzed based on the concentration of combustion products determined by gas chromatography equipment. In addition, the effects of the switching time, the inlet methane concentration, the flow rate, and heat extraction were studied. The experimental results show that the reverse flow reactor system can run under a wide range of operating conditions with autothermal operation and high methane conversion. In addition, this system can even work with methane concentrations as low as 0.30% in the autothermal operation mode without NO emission. Unlike previous studies, this study shows that the flow rate has little effect on the methane conversion rate in the cyclic steady state over a wide range of operating conditions. In addition, methane conversion and reaction zone change as the inlet methane concentration varies during the reaction process in the cyclic steady state. The combined optimization of operating parameters can effectively improve the stability of the reverse flow reactor system and methane conversion efficiency.