(65b) Simulation of Structural Effects of Monolith Catalyst on Methane Dry Reforming in a Solar Thermochemical Reactor

Methane dry reforming (MDR) is a promising progress, as it not only solves the issue of greenhouse gas (CH₄, CO₂) emissions, but also provides appropriate energy storage products (CO, H₂) for individual applications or further Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. The introduction of solar energy into MDR process is an attractive approach to store solar energy to chemical fuels with eliminating the limitations in time and space. Since MDR is an endothermic process, concentrated solar energy can provide essential heat to maintain the process operation. Since MDR obeys surface chemistry, the catalyst structures affect the thermal and reactive performances. In this paper, computational fluid dynamic (CFD) numerical analysis is applied to study the effects of lattice structure for the monolith catalyst in a three-dimensional (3D) annular fixed bed sample. Solar radiation is introduced as an energy source boundary condition with considering internal radiation via discrete ordinate method (DOM). A detailed micro-kinetic surface mechanism of Ni based catalyst is applied to simulate the MDR process. The structures of catalysts are further built in the catalyst region of former reported solar partition cavity reactor to investigate the heat, mass transfer performance with energy conversion efficiency in a specific reactor.