Optimal Hydrogen Flux in a Catalytic Membrane Water Gas Shift Reactor

A one-dimensional homogeneous reactor model for a cocurrent flow nonadiabatic catalytic membrane reactor operating water gas shift reaction (WGSR) is developed. The model is used to predict the performance of the reactor and estimate the optimal hydrogen flux profiles required to maximize the CO conversion, and control the temperature rise due to the exothermicity. Under the optimized condition, the secured optimal hydrogen flux is found to be a bang-bang type suggesting constructing reactors of different hydrogen permeabilities. To control the reactor temperature, the activity of the reaction side is diluted by distributing axially certain fractions of inert solid, i.e. 0.35, 0.45 and 0.50. The total volume fraction of the inert solid required to maintain the temperature at 320oC (593.15 K) is 0.50 and the profile is obtained to be a singular-arc type with an observed maximum activity at the reactor inlet.