Computational Fluid Dynamic Study On The Decomposition Of Methane Gas Into Hydrogen And Solid Carbon In A Packed Bed Fluid Catalytic Cracking Reactor

Abstract

This research was necesitated as a result of the development in petroleum refining technology in the last two decades which has brought the hydro processing reaction to a level of economic importance matching cracking and reforming. The work is to investigate the decomposition of methane gas into hydrogen and solid carbon.. Discretization methods were established numerically than analytically. Computational fluid dynamic modeling was carried out with the aid of chosen geometry, governing equation, properties of the fluid and time step. Result from this research shows that increase in time from 0 to 1000s yielded an increase in the formation of hydrogen from 0 to 42mol/dm 3 , increased carbon from 0 to 21mol/dm 3 , and decreased methane concentration from 50 to 29mol/dm 3. This shows that methane decomposition is taking place.. Methane CH 4 and Hydrogen H 2 concentrations are approximately 0.18m at the reactor mid section. The model can be modified to study the effect of carbon deposit on FCC catalyst of vacuum gas oil to produce reformate in packed bed.