2D heat and mass transfer modeling of methane steam reforming for hydrogen production in a compact reformer

Energy Conversion and Management, Volume 65, January 2013, Pages 155–163
Global Conference on Renewable energy and Energy Efficiency for Desert Regions 2011 "GCREEDER 2011"
2D heat and mass transfer modeling of methane steam reforming for hydrogen production in a compact reformer
Meng Ni
Building Energy Research Group, Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
Abstract
Author describes a study of compact reformers (CRs), which are promising devices for efficient fuel processing. In CRs, a thin solid plate is sandwiched between two catalyst layers to enable efficient heat transfer from combustion duct to the reforming duct for fuel processing. For this investigation, researchers developed a 2D heat and mass transfer model to examine the fundamental transport phenomenon and chemical reaction kinetics in a CR for hydrogen production by methane steam reforming (MSR).
They considered both MSR reaction and water gas shift reaction (WGSR) model. They conducted parametric simulations to explore the effects of various structural/operating parameters, including pore size, permeability, gas velocity, temperature, and rate of heat supply on the reformer performance. They observed that the reaction rates of MSR and WGSR are the highest at the inlet, while decreasing significantly along the reformer. Increasing the operating temperature raises the reaction rates at the inlet. However, this exhibits very small influence in the downstream. In contrast, increasing the rate of heat supply raises the reaction rates in the downstream due to increased temperature. A high gas velocity and permeability facilitates gas transport in the porous structure, thereby enhancing reaction rates in the downstream of the reformer.
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