A detailed surface reaction mechanism to investigate oxidation of methane over nickel catalyst

We have developed a kinetically consistent detailed surface reaction mechanism for modeling the oxidation of methane over a nickel-based catalyst. A one-dimensional model, LOGEcat based on the single-channel 1D catalyst model, is used to perform the simulations. The original multi-step reaction mechanism is thermodynamically consistent and consists of 52 reactions. By thermodynamic consistency, we mean that the equilibrium is achieved with the support of the Arrhenius parameters and does not depend on the thermochemistry of the species involved in the considered reactions. The detailed mechanism developed in this investigation contains 26 reversible reactions. These reactions are obtained with the use of the thermochemistry of the species. The study focuses on ensuring kinetic consistency and this is done with the help of thermodynamic analysis by bringing the thermochemistry of the species in play in order to develop a surface reaction mechanism. The new mechanism can be used to understand the other processes, for example, steam- and dry-reforming of methane over nickel, however, the main focus of the paper is to check the performance of the detailed mechanism for catalytic partial oxidation of methane. The applicability of the mechanism is checked for various reactor conditions in terms of parameters such as temperature and pressure by comparing the results with the available reference data. The detailed mechanism developed in this study is able to accurately express oxidation of methane over the nickel catalyst for the considered reactor conditions.