Steam Methane Reformer

Before calculating the volume of the reactor, we should calculate the rate of reaction by the
kinetic equation of Steam Methane Reforming below (Datta, et al. 20006)

The rate equations that were obtained based on the rate determining steps for :

Then, we can calculate the reaction rate with assuming DEN=1. All the partial pressure in kPa
unit. However, we should calculate the equilibrium constant of steam methane reforming
reaction with equation below (Hou, K. 2001)

By assuming that we have a 90% conversion in the reactor with 0.1334 kmol/s feed

We can assume that conventional heat flux through reformer tube walls is approximately
5,921.176 kcal/ft2 h and the heat duty is about 4.42 x 106 kcal/h.

From the literature we read, the construction materials used is a 25% chromium-20%
nickel alloy is preferred tube material. We choose that material due to the high temperature of
the reformer. The catalyst volume in the reactor is usually 80% of the total reactor volume. The
catalyst volume is

We can conclude that the catalyst volume is 9.6 m3.