Performance analysis of water gas shift reaction in a membrane reactor

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of hydrogen permeance and selectivity, catalyst amount, H<inf>2</inf>O/CO ratio in a feed stream, and Ar sweep gas on the performance of a water gas shift reaction in a membrane reactor. It was observed that a minimum hydrogen selectivity of 100 was needed in a membrane reactor to obtain a hydrogen yield higher than the one at equilibrium and the hydrogen yield enhancement gradually decreased as the hydrogen permeance increased. The CO conversion in a membrane reactor initially increased with the catalyst amount and reached a plateau later for a membrane reactor with a low hydrogen permeance while the high CO conversion independent of a catalyst amount was observed for a membrane reactor with a high hydrogen permeance. For the H<inf>2</inf>O/CO ratio in a feed stream higher than 1.5, a hydrogen permeance had little effect on the CO conversion in a membrane reactor and it was found that a minimum Ar molar flow rate of 6.7×10-6 mol s-1 was needed to achieve the CO conversion higher than the one at equilibrium in a membrane reactor.