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Auto thermal reforming of natural gas
Surveying Feed Specification on the Effluent Quality as the Feedstock of a Methanol Unit and its Optimization

abtahi, mohammad hossein | 2009

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 39981 (06)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): farhadi, Fatollah
  7. Abstract:
  8. Synthesis gas is a gaseous mixture which mainly consists of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Different methods are used to produce synthesis gas but the most important method is auto thermal reforming. This method is based upon catalytic reactions. Steam, oxygen and natural gas are the influents to the reactor and synthesis gas will be the effluent. Ni catalysts on alpha-alumina as the support media are usually used in this process. These catalysts are highly heat resistant and insure great qualifications for reactions. This thesis tries to find best solutions of synthesis gas production suitable for feeding to a methanol production unit. There are four main reactions. Three of which are highly endothermic and the other is exothermic. Methane is replaced by natural gas to avoid complexity. Therefore there will be 7 participating components which are methane, water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen and nitrogen. Mass and heat transfer correlations are derived for two phases (solid and gas) while the gaseous mixture supposed as an ideal one. Influents flow rate ratio has the most significant effect on the effluent quality which forms the most portion of the optimization process. The software simulation leads to a partial differential algebraic equation system in which coefficients are highly related to variables. It is too hard to solve such a system of equations simultaneously; therefore, discrete numerical methods are preferably used. In this case, explicit finite difference method is chosen as the main solution procedure and finally the simulation results are optimized by the use of genetic algorithm. This optimization tends to find the best components concentrations and thermodynamic situation which best fits as the methanol unit feedstock. The results can help us have a more reliable both financial and operational plant for better production
  9. Keywords:
  10. Synthesis Gas ; Simulation ; Numerical Solution ; Genetic Algorithm ; Autothermally Reforming ; Nickel Catalyst

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