Analysis of Biphasic Cracking of Methane for Hydrogen Production Using Solar Energy

Year 2018, Volume: 21 Issue: 4, 797 - 803, 01.12.2018

Rabah Gomri , Belkacem Nezzari

https://doi.org/10.2339/politeknik.403998

Abstract

Hydrogen can be
produced by many processes, by a series of chemical reactions many of which
have been known for centuries. However, most of these reactions raise severe
environmental and safety problems, while availability of raw materials is a
critical problem. One of the partial solutions is solar hydrogen. It appears
that cracking of carbon-rich materials is the right solution for this energy.
In this context comes this numerical simulation of the methane cracking
phenomenon. In the simulation, we have taken in to account the existence of
carbon as a homogeneous powder. The mixture is considered to be biphasic formed
by a gaseous phase with methane, hydrogen gases and carbon black powder solid
phase. This powder is formed by solid particles with same diameter (d=50nm).
The cracking phenomenon of the methane into hydrogen and carbon black takes
place in a cylindrical cavity of 16 cm in diameter and 40 cm in length under
the heat of concentrated solar radiation without any catalyst. A commercial
calculation code "ANSYS FLUENT" is used to simulate the cracking
phenomena. Two cases were studied: the first one applying a maximum solar
radiation of 16MW/m² on the side wall of the reactor and the second
one a maximum solar radiation of 5 MW/m². The CH₄ flow
rate used at the inlet of the reactor is 0.4 L/min and the low Reynolds K - ε
turbulence model was applied. A time step of 0.04s has been used.The cracking
rate exceeds 90% with a maximum solar radiation of 16MW/m² and this
rate does not reach 85% with a maximum solar radiation of 5MW/m².The
dimensions of the cavity are important and it allows going from the
experimental scale to the industrial scale. Working without any catalyst
facilitates the separation of the elements after cracking.

Keywords

Hydrogen production, concentrated solar energy, methane, cracking

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