Abstract
The development of alternative concepts for production of hydrogen via steam methane reforming (SMR) has been attractive due to the limitations associated with the performance of the conventional catalytic reactor. The flow of pneumatically conveyed CO2 adsorbent particles within a stationary SMR catalyst phase was proposed, with adsorbent regeneration performed in a separate unit. A significant degree of conversion enhancement (up to 75%) was shown at moderate temperatures (750 K). Simulations results pointed out the importance of the interaction between the reaction and regeneration stages of the process. A model-based optimization approach was adopted to identify the optimum process scheme in terms of energy utilization. Alternative process schemes and designs were compared. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the AIChE Annual Meeting (San Francisco, CA 11/12-17/2006).