Hydrogen Production by a Steam-Reformer for Heavy Hydrocarbons

Abstract

The authors develop a small and simple steam-reforming reactor in a home-use size for n-dodecane as a heavy-hydrocarbons fuel. Under such a well-controlled condition by a thermal diffuser as the reactor satisfies two target-temperature criteria, the authors measure the inside-temperature profile and the hydrogen molar fraction (concentration) C_H2, together with the molar fractions C_CH4, C_CO and C_CO2 of other main gas components such as CH₄, CO and CO₂, respectively, using a gas chromatograph. In addition, the authors conduct theoretical calculations based on the thermal-equilibrium theory, and reveal C_H2, C_CH4, C_CO and C_CO2, as well as experiments. As a result, the authors successfully achieve suitable inside-temperature profiles. The steam-reforming reaction becomes more active at the position where temperature T > 800 K. The effects of the steam-to-carbon molar ratio S/C upon C_H2, C_CH4, C_CO and C_CO2 are shown, experimentally and theoretically. The experimental results agree well with the theoretical ones. Besides, carbon balance and conversion ratio show high accuracy in experiments.