CFD Simulation of the Sidewall Fired Tubular Reforming Furnace

This paper describes simulations of Haldor Topsoe designed reforming furnaces. These furnaces are fired by a matrix of burners on the two sidewalls. The burners provide the heat needed for the reactions taking place inside vertical catalyst-filled tubes. The main objective is to get a better understanding of the flow and temperature field on the flue gas side, thus making it possible to enhance the design of high efficiency reformers. The simulations on the furnace side include models for combustion and thermal radiation. A separate CFD simulation is performed on the process side. An appropriate method has been introduced for the coupling of the furnace model with the process model thus eliminating the need for using an assumed temperature profile as boundary condition on the outer tube walls. The computational model has been verified by performing simulations on a pilot reformer. The numerical results agree well with the experimental data.