Catalyst Distribution Optimization Scheme for Effective Green Hydrogen Production from Biogas Reforming

Abstract

Green hydrogen technology has recently gained in popularity due to the current economic and ecological trends that aim to remove the fossil fuels share in the energy mix. Among various alternatives, biogas reforming is an attractive choice for hydrogen production. To meet the authorities’ requirements, reforming biogas-enriched natural gas and sole biogas is tempting. Highly effective process conditions of biogas reforming are yet to be designed. The current state of the art lacks proper optimization of the process conditions. The optimization should aim to allow for maximization of the process effectiveness and limitation of the phenomena having an adverse influence on the process itself. One of the issues that should be addressed in optimization is the uniformity of temperature inside a reactor. Here we show an optimization design study that aims to unify temperature distribution by novel arrangements of catalysts segments in the model biogas reforming reactor. The acquired numerical results confirm the possibility of the enhancement of reaction effectiveness, coming from improving the thermal conditions. The used amount of catalytic material is remarkably reduced as a side effect of the presented optimization. To ensure an unhindered perception of the reaction improvement, the authors proposed a ratio of the hydrogen output and the amount of used catalyst as a measure.