Performance evaluation of fixed‐bed, millistructured, and metallic foam reactor channels for CO₂ methanation

Abstract

Power-to-gas technologies, combining hydrogen produced by water electrolysis with carbon dioxide to produce substitute natural gas (SNG), can support the increased penetration of renewable electricity sources. However, the technical and economic feasibility of these technologies requires the conversion efficiency of the whole process, including the methanation step. This paper provides an experimental performance comparison of three catalytic methanation reactor concepts, a fixed-bed reactor, a millistructured reactor, and a metallic foam reactor with the same nickelalumina catalyst. The response of each reactor was analyzed in light of five performance criteria, representing the methane yield, the reactor compactness, and the maximum temperature elevation. The millistructured reactor channel showed a higher methane space-time yield and volumetric productivity than the other reactors, but a significant catalyst temperature elevation. The metallic foam reactor showed a much lower space-time yield and volumetric productivity, but very good thermal management.

Understanding structure-activity relationships in highly active La promoted Ni catalysts for CO2 methanation

“…8). Remarkably, the temperature inside the bed reaches values close to 460 °C, a temperature that has previously been reported to be similar to that reached by a hot spot in a methanation reactor [78]. As such this allows us to assess the stability of these catalysts under harsh reaction conditions.…”

Carbon dioxide methanation kinetic model on a commercial Ni/Al2O3 catalyst

“…Comparison of the experimental and theoretical CO2 conversions and CH4 and CO selectivities at 623, 673 and 723 K are presented in Figure 15 for the adjusted parameters. As the obtained error is small at the three temperatures, the adjusted apparent kinetic constants allowed to calculate real kinetic constants present in Eqs ( 16), ( 17) and (18).…”

“…At an industrial or pilot scale, different reactor types are used (fluidized bed reactors, adiabatic or cooled fixed-bed reactors, micro-reactors, metallic-foam reactors, structured coated reactors or millistructured fixed-bed reactors-exchangers) [6,18,19,14,20].…”

Evaluation of a Sabatier Reaction Utilizing Hydrogen Produced by Concentrator Photovoltaic Modules under Outdoor Conditions

“…To avoid a thermodynamic barrier of the reaction and catalyst degradation, temperature control is required as a result of the extreme exothermic behavior of the reaction [14]. Thus, reactor temperature control is required to prevent thermodynamic limitation and catalyst sintering.…”