CFD study of the influence of catalyst particle design on steam reforming reaction heat effects in narrow packed tubes

The heat effects of methane steam reforming reactions were simulated in a narrow packed tube using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with heat sinks in the particles. Simulations were performed at constant pressure drop for cylindrical particles with different numbers and sizes of internal voids, and at different activity levels, corresponding to 2%, 3%, and 5% of the particle radius. Fluid and solid radial temperature profiles were found to be insensitive to the distribution of activity in the tube, but solid temperatures did depend on the activity level. At the tube wall, strong temperature differences were observed across the particles. The multihole particle designs showed higher heat uptakes and lower tube wall temperatures at each activity level. The CFD simulation results allowed a quantitative assessment of the effects of changing catalyst particle design.