Autothermal reactor concept for combined oxidative coupling and methane reforming

Abstract

A novel autothermal reactor concept has been developed for the simultaneous production of ethylene by oxidative coupling (OCM) and synthesis gas by steam reforming of methane (SRM), supported by a detailed numerical modeling study. The proposed reactor consists of two separate reaction chambers which are thermally coupled. The OCM is carried out in packed bed reverse flow membrane reactor tubes submerged in a fluidized bed where the unconverted methane and by-products, from which the valuable C2 components have been separated, are reformed together with some additional steam producing synthesis gas and consuming the reaction enthalpy emerged from the exothermic OCM