Heat transfer effect on operation and performance of auto cyclic catalytic reactor

This work is a part of the research project which consists to develop an auto-cyclic reactor (ACR) as a post combustor for the treatment of unburned methane in exhaust emissions from natural gas fueled engines. The project was motivated by the need to remove methane from emissions of natural gas engines since the unburned methane contributes significantly to green house effect. The ACR is a catalytic bed type reactor consisting of two concentric catalyst filled tubes. The design of the ACR permits to transfer the heat released by the methane combustion from the internal tube towards annulus in order to warm up the feed flow in the annular tube and thus improve the autothermicity.; The objective of this master project was to model the heat transfer involved in the ACR in order to improve understanding of reactor performance. Numerical techniques solving energy and mass balance in 1D and 2D were utilized to model heat transfer in the ACR. These models were used to describe the temperature profile and to design the insulation part and the fins effectiveness of a new pilot unit reactor. Then, experiments with the pilot unit were carried out to assess reactor performance under experimental conditions and to compare them with numerical prediction. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...