Analysis and Optimization of Cross-Flow Reactors for Oxidative Coupling of Methane

A cross-flow reactor model with distributed feed of oxygen and product removal for the oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) was developed, and comparison studies were carried out to analyze the different performances of reactors with different configurations in terms of contact time, temperature, pressure, dilution ratio, and permeability. For each of the reactor configurations considered, the overall methane to oxygen feed ratio was optimized such that the C2 yield at the reactor outlet was maximized. Modeling results showed that distributed feed oxygen could give rise to much higher C2 yields than the cofeed reactor, as long as the ratio of catalyst loading to initial methane flow rate was sufficiently high. Although reactors with optimally distributed oxygen feed give higher C2 yields than evenly distributed ones, the improvement is not significant. In the case of a two-membrane reactor, where one membrane is used for oxygen feed and the other for C2 product removal, higher C2 yields could be obtained t...