Reaction Control of Compact Alcoholic Fuel Reformer Using Heat Regeneration(Thermal Engineering)

Abstract

A compact tubular-typed fuel reformer was fabricated in this study, and was applied to produce hydrogen from methanol, focusing on the partial oxidation reaction (POR). The reformer was composed of a stainless steel pipe as the reactor exterior and ceramic honeycomb blocks inserted in two locations of the pipe. The upstream-side honeycomb blocks are expected to enhance the reforming stability and reaction efficiency by performing as an effective heat exchanger to the reactant gas. In addition, the downstream-side block acts as a heat regenerater which absorb the heat energy of the exhaust gas. The maximum hydrogen production was achieved in the condition of equivalence ratio, around 3.5, which is fuel rich condition of POR. The downstream-side honeycomb block enhanced the reforming efficiency by 8% at the maximum. This improvement was caused by the temperature rise at the reaction region due to the insertion of the downstream-side honeycomb block, while gas temperatures in the far-most downstream region became lower. These results indicate that the thermal energy possessed by the reforming gas was regenerated to the reaction region by the downstream-side honeycomb block.