EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

Nowadays, hydrogen technologies are gaining attractiveness due to strong economic and ecological trends. Governments and non-governmental organizations aim to eliminate conventional energy sources from the energy mix. The research for alternative solutions is currently top of the line. Hydrogen production on the way of the steam reforming of biogas is a tempting possibility, considering the near future. Feedstock for the process can be considered a renewable energy source, thereby fashioning the biogas reforming as more ecological than natural gas. Moreover, the remaining available hydrogen production technologies' investment cost is currently exceeding their profitability, working in favor of the reforming process. The reforming reaction has a strong endothermic character, requiring a considerable and continuous heat supply to proceed. Due to the process character, a highly non-uniform temperature field develops inside the reactor. It has a consequence in large temperature gradients, leading to the catalyst degradation and a reduced lifetime of the reforming unit. When biogas reforming is considered, the phenomena mentioned above are reported to gain in strength. Thus, to allow a relevant process condition, a catalyst design strategy in a cylindrical reactor is proposed. The conducted investigation includes analyzing the temperature distribution during the biogas reforming process and optimizing the catalyst alignment and design inside the reactor's pipe. The presented research aims to unify the temperature field developing in the reactor to control the process and extension of the reformer's life expectancy. The optimization is conducted using in-house numerical codes written for the reforming simulation and the optimization using a genetic algorithm. The presented paper focuses on determining differences in the biogas reforming reactor's operation with and without proposed design alteration.