(222a) Electrification of Steam Methane Reforming By Induction Heating

The decarbonization of the chemical industry is of significance to mitigate global warming. The use of carbon-free electrification is a way of decarbonizing the chemical industry. In this work, modeling design of an electrified steam methane reformer (SMR) is investigated. The SMR features strong endothermic reactions, and conventionally driven by the combustion of natural gas. Herein, induction heating generated by an alternating magnetic field is applied to provide a non-contact heat source to the catalyst sites. Among different induction heating mechanisms, eddy current and hysteresis were considered for heating purpose. A first principle mathematical model was developed by considering the fluid mass, energy, momentum balances as well as diffusion-reaction, both inside (catalyst domain) and outside (bulk gas phase) of the catalyst pellet. Different scale of models was built by considering one-dimensional or two-dimensional model, accounting for diffusion or dispersion, and heterogeneous or pseudo-homogeneous reactions, among others. The results indicate that the electrified reformer is more compact, energy-efficient, and has faster dynamics than the current reformers.