Numerical study on the effect of discrete catalytic layer arrangement on methane steam reforming performance

The arrangement of catalytic layers inside the reactor is an important factor that affects the efficiency of methane steam reforming to produce hydrogen, and the traditional continuous catalytic layer structure is limited by the heat and mass transfer, resulting in unbalanced heat distribution inside the reactor and poor reaction performance. In order to improve the performance of methane reforming and balance the internal temperature of the reactor, different catalytic layers were designed based on 2D numerical simulation, and different numbers of discrete catalytic layers were modeled to compare the heat and mass transfer, methane conversion rate and hydrogen yield between the walls and inside the reactor. The results show that the increase in the number of catalyst gaps improves the temperature gradient inside the reactor, reduces the average cold point temperature difference inside the reactor by up to 7.2%, maintains a better thermal balance inside the reactor, improves the reaction rate inside the reactor, and the methane conversion rate and hydrogen yield after the reaction have been improved by 28.46% and 12.7% respectively.