Simulation and Modeling Modeling of Syngas Production via Glycerol Dry Reforming Using Aspen plus
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Date
2018-11
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The surfeit of crude glycerol as by product from biodiesel industry triggered
alternative routes to valorise glycerol to value added fuels such as syngas, mixture of
hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Dry reforming of glycerol uses carbon dioxide (CO2)
as reactant to produce syngas. The process of glycerol dry reforming has been
simulated and the effect of thermodynamic properties on yield, selectivity and
conversion were studied and optimized with the aid of ASPEN PLUS V8.8 in this
paper. The process of simulating glycerol dry reforming was carried out using
RGIBBS and RPLUG reactor types. The sensitivity analysis and the optimization of
the process were accomplished using the sensitivity and optimization sections of the
model analysis tools of the ASPEN PLUS. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis was
carried out to observe the effect of several parameters. The kinetic data for glycerol
dry reforming and water gas shift reactions were obtained from literature. The kinetic
based simulation was performed using ASPEN PLUS RPLUG model blocks with
rearranged Power law and Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen –Watson (LHHW). The
result obtained revealed that the simulation with RGIBBS and RPLUG gave different
values of components. Furthermore, it was revealed from sensitivity analysis of the
process that optimization was necessary to obtain the operating variable that would
involved in the process. Optimization was able to give a satisfactory value of
conversion of glycerol, carbon dioxide for reforming and carbon monoxide and water
for water gas shift reaction. However, much has been reported about thermodynamic
analysis of steam reforming of glycerol, little is known about thermodynamic analysis
of glycerol dry reforming. In this regard, in the current work, with Aspen plus
simulator glycerol dry reforming thermodynamic analysis is carried out. The effect of
process such as: temperature, pressure, length of the reactor, catalyst particle density,
and feed ratio to the reactor performance were investigated. Based on this the yield of
syngas was 92% over the range of temperature 573 -1273K whereas, over the range
of pressure 1-30 bar and feed ratio 1-5; the yield of syngas were 50% and 51.24%
respectively
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Keywords
Sensitivity analysis, Aspen plus, Optimization, Syngas, Dry reforming