Simulation study of an auto-thermal double-membrane reactor for the simultaneous production of hydrogen and methanol: comparison of two different hydrogen redistribution strategies along the reactor

Abstract In a continuing effort to realize the simultaneous hydrogen and methanol production via the auto-thermal methanol synthesis process, the effect of two different hydrogen redistribution strategies along a double-membrane reactor has been considered. A steady-state one-dimensional heterogeneous model was developed to compare two strategies applied in the operation of the auto-thermal methanol synthesis. It was found that the counter-current configuration exhibited the better performance compared to the reactor operated in the co-current mode from both the economic and environmental points of view. This superiority is ascribed to the establishment of a more favourable temperature profile along the reactor and also more hydrogen extraction from the reaction zone. Moreover, the influence of some operating variables was investigated on the performance of the auto-thermal double-membrane reactor in the counter-current configuration. The results suggest that utilizing this configuration for pure hydrogen and methanol production could be feasible and beneficial.

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Differential Evolution Strategy for Optimization of Hydrogen Production via Coupling of Methylcyclohexane Dehydrogenation Reaction and Methanol Synthesis Process in a Thermally Coupled Double Membrane Reactor

Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research ◽

10.1021/ie301583w ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 52 (4) ◽

pp. 1508-1522 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Shahab Amirabadi ◽

Sedigheh Kabiri ◽

Reza Vakili ◽

Davood Iranshahi ◽

Mohammad Reza Rahimpour

Keyword(s):

Hydrogen Production ◽

Differential Evolution ◽

Methanol Synthesis ◽

Membrane Reactor ◽

Evolution Strategy ◽

Synthesis Process ◽

Double Membrane ◽

Dehydrogenation Reaction ◽

Methylcyclohexane Dehydrogenation

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Membrane-Assisted Methanol Synthesis Processes and the Required Permselectivity

Membranes ◽

10.3390/membranes11080596 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (8) ◽

pp. 596

Author(s):

Homa Hamedi ◽

Torsten Brinkmann ◽

Sergey Shishatskiy

Keyword(s):

Methanol Synthesis ◽

Membrane Reactor ◽

Power Saving ◽

Membrane Reactors ◽

Synthesis Process ◽

Power Requirement ◽

Minimum Requirement ◽

Advantages And Disadvantages ◽

Process Flowsheet ◽

Selective Membrane

Water-selective membrane reactors are proposed in the literature to improve methanol yield for a standalone reactor. However, the methanol productivity is not a precise metric to show the system improvement since, with this approach, we do not consider the amount of energy loss through the undesirable co-permeation of H2, which could otherwise remain on the reaction side at high pressure. In other words, the effectiveness of this new technology should be evaluated at a process flowsheet level to assess its advantages and disadvantages on the overall system performance and, more importantly, to identify the minimum required properties of the membrane. Therefore, an equation-based model for a membrane reactor, developed in Aspen Custom Modeler, was incorporated within the process flowsheet of the methanol plant to develop an integrated process framework to conduct the investigation. We determined the upper limit of the power-saving at 32% by exploring the favorable conditions wherein a conceptual water selective membrane reactor proves more effective. Using these suboptimal conditions, we realized that the minimum required H2O/H2 selectivity is 190 and 970 based on the exergy analysis and overall power requirement, respectively. According to our results, the permselectivity of membranes synthesized for this application in the literature, showing improvements in the one-pass conversion, is well below the minimum requirement when the overall methanol synthesis process flowsheet comes into consideration.

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