Numerical simulation of natural gas non-catalytic partial oxidation reformer

A comprehensive 2D model of a natural gas (NG) non-catalytic partial oxidation (NC-POX) reformer is established in this study. The simplified mechanism (GRI-mech 3.0) is applied to calculate the reaction rates involved in the reformer process. Both the modified Eddy-Dissipation-Concept (EDC) model and the PDF model are applied to calculate the chemistry and turbulence interaction. The results of the EDC model agree well with the operating data of industrial reformer. The effects of operating pressure, the O2/NG mole ratio and the steam/NG mole ratio on the performance of reformer are investigated by using the EDC model. The results indicate that the increase of pressure promotes the CH4 conversion and a pressure higher than 3.0 MPa is suggested for industrial operation according to the conversion of the CH4 in the range of this study. As the O2/NG mole ratio increases, the temperature increases and the concentration of CH4 in syngas decreases. The O2/NG mole ratio range of 0.66–0.67 is optimal according to the yield of the effective syngas compositions (H2 + CO) mole fraction in raw syngas and the consumption of oxygen. It is also confirmed that the decrease of highest temperature of flame in the reformer and the raise of the syngas H2/CO mole ratio can be observed with the increase of the steam/NG mole ratio.