Differential evolution (DE) strategy for optimization of hydrogen production and utilization in a thermally coupled membrane reactor for decalin dehydrogenation and Fischer–Tropsch synthesis in GTL technology

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Volume 36, Issue 8, April 2011, Pages 4917-4933
Differential evolution (DE) strategy for optimization of hydrogen production and utilization in a thermally coupled membrane reactor for decalin dehydrogenation and Fischer–Tropsch synthesis in GTL technology
M.R. Rahimpour, A. Mirvakili, K. Paymooni
rahimpor@shirazu.ac.ir
Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz 71345, Iran
Abstract
Study of the operating conditions of a thermally coupled membrane reactor (TCMR) in gas-to-liquid (GTL) technology, optimized via differential evolution (DE) method to maximize the hydrogen mole fraction in the endothermic side and gasoline yield in the exothermic side.
TCMR is designed as a double pipe reactor where highly exothermic Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) reactions in the exothermic side are coupled with decalin dehydrogenation reaction in the endothermic side. The minimum required hydrogen molar flow rate in the recycled stream is optimized to compensate for a lack of hydrogen at the end of the reactor in the exothermic side. Results indicate a 14.28% increase in gasoline yield in optimized TCMR compared with conventional tubular reactor (CR). In addition, 81.49% hydrogen is produced in the endothermic side and about 1% hydrogen is recycled to the exothermic side for utilization in FTS reactions in optimized TCMR.
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