Process & Energy Colloquium
location: 3mE gebouw/building, Mekelweg 2, Lecture room E
Ventilation air methane - converting a greenhouse gas into energy
By: Prof. Krzystof Warmuzinski
Polish Academy of Sciences , Institute of Chemical Engineering
The project focuses on non-catalytic reverse-flow reactors for the combustion of ventilation air methane. The principal objective of the study is to derive a viable and realistic model of the process that would provide a basis for scale-up and optimization. Instead of using elementary schemes we decided to resort to simplified global mechanisms: single-step, consecutive, parallel and consecutive-parallel. Then, laboratory experiments were carried out to confirm or disprove the individual schemes. These experiments were done in an empty tubular reactor and in two types of non-catalytic monolith reactors. Upon estimating the relevant kinetic parameters and further limiting the number of the reaction mechanisms, oxidation tests were performed in a large-scale thermal flow-reversal reactor. The results obtained so far clearly demonstrate that the cyclic operation can be sustained for the initial methane concentrations as low as 0.3 vol.%. The conversions always exceed 90%, to reach almost 100% in some cases. Most importantly, however, a portion of the heat generated in the system can be extracted without impairing the cyclic operation.
