Traditionally the reactor is recognised as the `heart' of a chemical process system and
hence the focus on this part of the system is usually quite detailed. Steam reforming,
however, due to the `building block' nature of its reaction products is unusual and
generally is perceived as a `utility' to other reaction processes and hence the focus is drawn " towards the 'main' reaction processes of the system. Additionally as a `mature' process,
steam reforming is often treated as sufficiently defined for the requirements within the
overall chemical process.
For both primary and secondary steam reformers several models of varying complexity
were developed which allowed assessment of issues raised about previous models and
model improvements; drawing on the advancements in modelling that have not only
allowed the possibility of increasing the scope of simulations but also increased confidence
in the simulation results. Despite the complex nature of the steam reforming systems, a
surprisingly simplistic model is demonstrated to perform well, however, to improve on
existing designs and maximise the capability of current designs it is shown that more
complex models are required.
After model development the natural course is to optimisation. This is a powerful tool
which must be used carefully as significant issues remain around its employment. Despite
the remaining concerns, some simple optimisation cases showed the potential of the models
developed in this work and although not exhaustive demonstrated the benefits of
optimisation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/4403 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Dunn, Austin J. |
| Contributors | Mujtaba, Iqbal |
| Publisher | University of Bradford, Department of Chemical Engineering |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, doctoral, PhD |
| Rights | <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>. |
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