A logic-based controller for the mitigation of ventilation air methane in a catalytic flow reversal reactor

Abstract

The control system of a catalytic flow reversal reactor (CFRR) for the mitigation of ventilation air methane was investigated. A one-dimensional heterogeneous model with a logic-based controller was applied to simulate the CFRR. The simulation results indicated that the controller developed in this work performs well under normal conditions. Air dilution and auxiliary methane injection are effective to avoid the catalyst overheating and reaction extinction caused by prolonged rich and lean feed conditions, respectively. In contrast, the reactor is prone to lose control by adjusting the switching time solely. Air dilution exhibits the effects of two contradictory aspects on the operation of CFRR, i.e., cooling the bed and accumulating heat, though the former is in general more prominent. Lowering the reference temperature for flow reversal can decrease the bed temperature and benefit stable operation under rich methane feed condition.

Keywords

ventilation air methane / reverse flow reactor / lean methane combustion / logic-based controller / mathematical modeling

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the financial supports of National Basic Research Program of China (2010CB226900, 2011CB201400), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21227002), Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Province of China (2011011006-3, 2012021005-3).

Nomenclature

an	surface area per unit volume /m2·m-3
CCH4	methane concentration /mol·m-3
CP	heat capacity /(J·kg-1·K-1)
Deff	effective dispersion coefficient /m2·s-1
DR	diameter of reactor /m
h	heat transfer coefficient /(W·m-2·K-1 )
DH	enthalpy of reaction of methane /J·mol-1
km	mass transfer coefficient /m·s-1
k	thermal conductivity /(W·m-1·K-1)
L	reactor length /m
–RCH4	rate of disappearance of methane /(mol·m-3·s-1)
t	time /s
tsw	switching time /s
T	temperature /K
u	superficial gas velocity /m·s-1
Uk	overall heat transfer coefficient /(W·m-2·K-1)
x	axial coordinate /m
Greek letters
a	air dilution term
b	methane injection term
e	porosity
h	effective factor
r	density /kg·m-3
t	tortuosity factor
Superscripts and subscripts
0	time t= 0
f	fluid properties
feed	feed properties
in	inlet properties
max	maximum
out	outlet properties
s	solid properties
Abbreviations
CFRR	catalytic flow reversal reactor
LQR	linear-quadratic regulator
MPC	model predictive control
RFR	reversal flow reactor
RMPC	repetitive model predictive control
STP	standard temperature and pressure
VAM	ventilation air methane

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