Structural design and performance evaluation of industrial-scale C2H2 reactor by partial oxidation of natural gas

Abstract In this study, industrial-scale reactors are designed and the reactions are numerically simulated by computational fluid dynamics coupled with detailed chemical reaction mechanism. The results show that the mole fraction of C2H2 at the outlet is 9.93% under industrial scale production conditions, whereas it is lower than 8.0% in the industrial production process. This indicate that the designed reactor is competitive. Studies shows that decreasing the number of inlet tubes will lengthen the flame and thus reduce the reaction degree under the same flow rate. The role of oxygen-supply tube is only to stabilize the flame. There is a dependent relationship between the optimal oxygen-hydrocarbon ratio and the preheating temperature. For the target product C2H2 only, at 923 K, the optimal oxygen-hydrocarbon ratio is 0.56. The best preheating temperature range is 823–923 K. These results deepen the understanding of C2H2 production by partial oxidation of natural gas, and provide help for optimizing the process.