Thermodynamic and Kinetic Based Simulation Approach to CO₂ and CO Methane Hydrogenation

Abstract

Methane hydrogenation is an important process in the power to methane system which is a novel energy saving technology. The current study is based on the simulation of CO₂ and CO methanation, using Aspen Plus® V8.6. First, different kinetic models obtained from literature are used in order to investigate methane mole fraction profiles along the reactor length. It can be found that methanation of pure CO leads to a higher value of methane yield and a reactant conversion related to CO₂ at the same operating condition and stoichiometric feed ratio. Moreover, a comprehensive thermodynamic simulation will be carried out to express the effects of different operating conditions on the system efficiency. It can be seen that the performance of both cases are highly affected by temperature and pressure. Although, CO and CO₂ seem to have the similar behavior but these have still differences which will be expressed in detail below.