Abstract—A simulation study of a double tubular catalytic membrane reactor for the water–gas shift (WGS) reaction under steady-state operation is presented. The membrane consists of dense Pd layer deposited on a porous glass cylinder support. The WGS model was carried out with and without the membrane at a temperature of 673 K, pressure of 2atm, argon flow rate of 400 cm
3.min
−1, and steam-to-carbon (S/C) ratio of 1. The membrane reactor could achieve a Carbon Monoxide (CO) conversion efficiency of up to 93.7%, whereas a maximum value of only 77.5% was attained without using a membrane. In order to find the optimum operating conditions, the response surface method was used. It was found that a nearly complete CO conversion could be achieved at S/C ratio = 4, total retentate pressure =12 atm, and membrane thickness =5 μm. There is a good agreement between the model results and the reported experimental results.
Index Terms—Membrane reactor, Palladium (Pd) composite membrane, water–gas shift reaction (WGSR), response surface method (RSM).
Aya Abdel-Hamid I. Mourad is with the Academic Support Department, Abu Dhabi Polytechnic, Institute of Applied Technology, P.O. 111499, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (e-mail: Aya.abdelhamid@adpoly.ac.ae).
N. M. Ghasem and A. Y. Alraeesi are with Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, United Arab Emirates University, P.O. 15551, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates (e-mail: nayef@uaeu.ac.ae, a.alraeesi@uaeu.ac.ae).
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Cite: Aya Abdel-Hamid I. Mourad, Nayef Mohamed Ghasem, and Abdulrahman Yaqoub Alraeesi, "Modelling and Simulation of Hydrogen Production via Water Gas Shift Membrane Reactor," International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Applications vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 112-118, 2018.