Ammonia decomposition for hydrogen production using packed bed catalytic membrane reactor

Ammonia can be used for hydrogen storage as it is relatively easy to transport, and can be generated at the site by decomposition of ammonia. In this work, the authors report studies on ammonia decomposition using packed-bed catalytic membrane reactor (PBCMR) based on Pd–Ag alloy membrane. The studies were carried out at different operating conditions in single tube PBCMR as well as in packed bed catalytic reactor without membrane (PBCR). A conversion of ∼93% was achieved in PBCMR at a temperature of 773 K and 1 bar, as against a conversion of ∼80% in PBCR. A CFD model was also developed and validated using experimental results. The model was further extrapolated to carry out 3D simulations of multi-tube PBCMR for parametric optimisation. This is a first of its kind study wherein a computational approach is used for studies on ammonia decomposition using multi-tube PBCMR.