On the catalytic combustion behavior of lean methane-air mixture over platinum catalyst with the navier-stokes and plug-flow models

Numerical analysis using CFD facilitates the problem of investigating lean methane-air mixtures on the Pt-coated catalytic walls, involving homogeneous gaseous species and heterogeneous catalytic surface reactions. Parametric studies on the inlet velocity and temperature alter the location of the commencement of surface reactions, and as a result, the prudent selection of appropriate flow configurations in the catalytic combustion process can be determined. The results show that the temperature is regulated by the stable combustion process attaining an adiabatic flame temperature, while on the other hand, immediately after the occurrence of flame ignition, sharp rises of gaseous species are observed, proving that the gas reactions are induced by the catalytic surface activity. In addition, this work analogized the Navier-Stokes model with the 1-D plug-flow reactor model to reveal the range of validity of various approximations.