Steam reforming process temperature profile

Conventional steam reformers are furnaces containing tubes filled with reforming catalyst. Radiation burners, which are usually installed at the top and the bottom of the furnace, generate the process heat (Fig. 1.4(a)). Figure 1.4(b) shows a schematic lateral temperature profile inside a single reformer tube. 

To evaluate the potential of carbon formation in a steam reformer, it is therefore essential to have a rigorous computer model, which contains kinetic models for the process side (reactor), as well as heat transfer models for the combustion side (furnace). The process and combustion models must be coupled together to accurately calculate the process composition, pressure, and temperature profiles, which result from the complex interaction between reaction kinetics and heat transfer. There may also be a temperature difference between bulk fluid, catalyst surface, and catalyst interior. Lee and Luss (7) have derived formulas for this temperature difference in terms of directly observable quantities The Weisz modulus and the effective Sherwood and Nusselt numbers based on external values (8). 

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