Oxidative coupling of methane in membrane reactor reactor simulation studies and multi objective optimization

Abstract

Oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) is the most efficient process pathway for ethylene manufacture from abundantly sourced methane. Fixed bed and fluidized bed reactors have been in use for OCM. However the difficulty in controlling the temperature during the exothermic reaction and deep oxidation of methane to produce less useful oxides of carbon, lead the focus onto membrane reactors for OCM. This work intends to compare the performance of OCM in a membrane reactor with a co-feed reactor for OCM and optimize the operating conditions. Based on the reaction kinetics in a conventional co-feed fixed bed reactor, a model is developed for membrane reactor and simulated to study the effect of various parameters on the performance of OCM to maximize ethylene selectivity and yield. Genetic algorithm is used for optimization of reactor temperature to maximize the selectivity and yield of C2 products. To maximize selectivity to around 27-30 %, lower conversion is preferred and temperature is to be maintained at 1150 K.