ATR Reactor Setup Start-up Phase

The reactor start-up was performed by feeding a water-free mixture of methane and air with an O2/CH4 molar ratio of 1.36 and by inducing for few seconds the voltaic arc between the spark plugs. When the mixture is ignited, the temperature on the SiC foam suddenly (1 min) reaches around 1000 °C. Furthermore, due to the heat transfer, the temperature in the catalytic zone reaches in about 2 min the light-off value with full reactants conversion. The whole start-up phase is no longer than 3 min. 

After the ignition phase, water is fed to the reactor and the 02 CH4 and H20 CH4 ratios are varied until the desired operating conditions are reached. It must be noted that after the ignition phase, due to the lower values of the 02 CH4 ratio, the homogeneous combustion of methane is inhibited and consequently POX, SR and WGS reactions occur simultaneously in the catalytic bed, while the temperature on the SiC foam decreases to values lower than 400 °C. 

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