A comparative simulation study of methane steam reforming in a porous ceramic membrane reactor using nitrogen and steam as sweep gases

Comparative studies were carried out via numerical simulation to analyze the performances of a porous ceramic membrane reactor for methane steam reforming using nitrogen and steam as sweep gases. A one-dimensional pseudo-homogeneous model taking into account the thermal effect was used to describe the behavior of the membrane reactor. As a result, the use of steam as the sweep gas showed the better performance in terms of methane conversion and hydrogen recovery yield, for most of the operating parameters investigated including the reaction temperature, the feed flow rate, as well as the sweep gas flow rate and the operation mode. The counter-current flow mode was found to perform better than the co-current flow mode for both nitrogen and steam as the sweep gases under the conditions considered.