Autothermal reforming of methane with integrated CO2 capture in novel fluidized bed membrane reactors

Hydrogen production with integrated CO2 capture by autothermal reforming of methane has been investigated in a novel fluidized bed membrane reactor configuration. With a phenomenological reactor model the reactor performance has been investigated over a wide range of operating conditions, viz. temperature, pressure, H2O/CH4 ratio, and membrane area. The results obtained show that pure hydrogen production with integrated CO2 capture is feasible, however, only with a relatively low load/surface ratio (L/S) (<1 m(3)/m(2) h). On the other hand, if complete CO2 capture is not the major aim, the reactor can be operated in a much wider range of L/S (1-10 m(3)/m(2) h) obtaining much higher conversions than achievable with a reactor without membranes, and H, recoveries higher than 80%. which open up possibilities for industrial application of membrane reactors. (C) 2009 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.