Combustion of coal mine ventilation air methane in a regenerative combustor with integrated adsorption: Reactor design and optimization

Coal mine ventilation air methane is an important environmental concern due to its contribution to global warming. Catalytic combustion in reverse flow reactors is an efficient treatment technique, but high emission moistures lead to catalyst inhibition. To overcome this issue a novel reverse flow reactor with integrated water adsorption has been proposed. In this work, the design of a reverse flow reactor adequate to treat a typical real coal ventilation stream, 45 m³/s with 0.30% (mol) methane and 5% (mol) water, has been studied. The performance of the reactor design has been simulated using a 1D heterogeneous dynamic model, previously validated with experimental results. Particular attention has been paid to reactor stability when water and methane feed concentration change upon time. Real coal mine ventilation air data have been used to produce realistic simulations. The optimization of the operating conditions (surface velocity and switching time) has been carried out based on the total cost of the reactor (considering fixed capital and 10-year variable cost).