Reactor design and performance optimisation for catalytic hydrogen production from methane

将天然气转化为氢气和石墨具有高度破坏性的潜力，如果该过程能够扩大到商业数量，则具有巨大的价值。氢被认为是未来低碳能源中越来越重要的组成部分。有潜力抓住天然气的所有价值，并受益于几个高增长市场（包括锂离子电池的石墨市场和燃料电池技术的氢市场）。成熟的工业氢气和石墨市场目前分别价值超过1000亿美元和130亿美元。甲烷裂解过程已经被很好地理解，然而，需要设计一个优化反应的反应器。反应器的主要要求是减少/消除过程中的二氧化碳排放。应该将碳以石墨的形式“清洁”捕获，而不是像目前大多数制氢方法那样以二氧化碳的形式“肮脏”排放。其他挑战包括安全去除产生的碳、持续的甲烷裂解、更换催化剂、建立压力、催化剂堵塞以及持续去除碳化物。因此，本研究可以通过CFD （Star CCM & COMSOL）等不同的模拟工具为所提出的反应设计优化的反应器来填补这一空白。

Natural gas into hydrogen and graphite has the potential to be highly disruptive and presents substantial value if the process can be scaled up to commercial quantities. Hydrogen is the energy source considered an increasingly vital component of low carbon future. Potential to capture all the value in natural gas and benefit from exposure to several high growth markets (including the graphite market for Li ion batteries and the hydrogen market for fuel cell technology). The established industrial hydrogen and graphite markets are currently worth over $100bn and $13bn, respectively.The methane cracking process is well understood however, there is a need to design a reactor that optimises the reaction. The main requirement of the reactor is to reduce/nullify CO2 emission from the process. There should be the incorporation of the process in which the carbon is captured "clean" as graphite rather than vented "dirty" as CO2, as is the case for most current hydrogen production methods. Other challenges include safe removal of carbon produced, continuous methane cracking, replacement of catalyst, pressure building, clogging of catalyst, and continuous removal of carbides. Therefore, there is a big gap that this research can fill in by designing the optimised reactor for the proposed reaction by means of different simulation tools like CFD (Star CCM & COMSOL).