CFD simulation and scale-up aspects for hydrogen production by steam reforming of pyrolysis volatiles of biomass in catalytic bed reactor

A fluidized bed reactor is well suited for a catalytic steam reforming process. Exposure of gaseous reactants with the catalyst particles is ensured with a stable fluidization condition, which also helps in maintaining uniform temperature profile inside the reactor. Volatile products of pine wood sawdust pyrolysis were allowed to react with steam in the presence of Ni/Al 2 O 3 catalyst particles inside the fluidized bed of 38 mm diameter and 110 mm length at 600, 650 and 700 °C. A FEM-based CFD simulation using COMSOL Multiphysics software was performed to understand the effect of catalyst loading at a particular inlet composition of volatiles resulted from pyrolysis with an assumption that the fluidized bed is a homogeneously porous structure bed. Simulation predicted results were compared with the previously published experimental results. It was found that the model predictions agreed well with the experimental results and thus the model was used in scaling up the process by a factor of 1000 to generate data for further engineering. • CFD simulation of a catalytic fluidized bed for steam reforming of organic volatiles was investigated. • Effect of catalyst loading and temperature on the production of hydrogen are studied. • Simulation prediction agrees well with earlier reported experimental data. • 1000 times scale-up data was generated with the aim of higher yield of hydrogen.