• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.32 no.8
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• pp.636-644
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• 2008

The objective of this paper is to investigate characteristics of an autothermal reformer at various operating conditions. Numerical method has been used, and simulation model has been developed for the analysis. Pseudo-homogeneous model is incorporated because the reactor is filled with catalysts of a packed-bed type. Dominant chemical reactions are Full Combustion reaction, Steam Reforming(SR) reaction, Water-Gas Shift(WGS) reaction, and Direct Steam Reforming(DSR) reaction. Simulation results are compared with experimental results for code validation. Operating parameters of the autothermal reformer are inlet temperature, Oxygen to Carbon Ratio(OCR), Steam to Carbon Ratio(SCR), and Gas Hourly Space Velocity(GHSV). Temperature at the reactor center, fuel conversion, species at the reformer outlet, and reforming efficiency are shown as simulation results. SR reaction rate is improved by increased inlet temperature. Reforming efficiency and fuel conversion reached the maximum at 0.7 of OCR. SR reaction and WGS reaction are activated as SCR increases. When GHSV is increased, reforming efficiency increases but pressure drop from the increased GHSV may decrease the system efficiency.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.558-565
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• 2008

Solid oxide fuel cell(SOFC) has a higher fuel flexibility than low temperature fuel cells, such as polymer electrolyte fuel cell(PEMFC) and phosphoric acid fuel cell(PAFC). SOFCs also use CO and $CH_4$ as a fuel, because SOFCs are hot enough to allow the CH4 steam reformation(SR) reaction and water-gas shift(WGS) reaction occur within the SOFC stack itself. Diesel is a good candidate for SOFC system fuel because diesel reformate gas include a higher degree of CO and $CH_4$ concentration than other hydrocarbon(methane, butane, etc.) reformate gas. Selection of catalyst for autothermalr reforming of diesel was performed in this paper, and characteristics of reforming performance between packed-bed and microchannel catalyst are compared for SOFC system. The mesh-typed microchannel catalyst also investigated for diesel ATR operation for 1kW-class SOFC system. 1kW-class diesel microchannel ATR was continuously operated about 30 hours and its reforming efficiency was achieved nearly 55%.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.30 no.9 s.252
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• pp.850-857
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• 2006

Hydrogen production using current fueling facilities is essential for near-term applications of fuel cells. A preliminary process for developing a natural gas autothermal reforming (ATR) reactor for fuel cells is presented in this paper. A experimental reactor for methane ATR was constructed and used for characterization of Jin reactor. Temperature profiles of the reactor were observed, and reformed gas compositions were analyzed to evaluate efficiency, conversion and reaction heat with varying amounts of $O_2/CH_4$ at selected furnace temperature and $H_2O/CH_4$. The amount of $O_2/CH_4$ showed strong offsets on reactor temperature, efficiency and conversion indicating that $O_2/CH_4$ is a crucial operation condition. Operation conditions which result in thermal neutrality of ATR reactor system were determined for two cases of an ATR system based on the estimation of enthalpy difference between reactants of assumed inlet temperatures and the products from experimental results. The determined conditions for thermally neutral operations could be used for guidelines to design reformers and for determining the operation parameters of a self sustaining ATR reactor.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.503-506
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• 2008

Liquid hydrocarbon fuels, such as gasoline, kerosene, diesel and JP 8, can be good candidates for SOFC (solid oxide fuel cell) system fuel due to their high hydrogen density. Autothermal reforming (ATR) is suitable for liquid hydrocarbon fuel reforming because oxygen can decompose the aromatics in liquid fuel and steam can suppress the carbon deposition during catalytic reaction. The advantage of ATR is that it has a simple system construction due to exothermicity of ATR reaction. We control the exothermicity of reaction, make the reaction possible design a self-sustaining ATR reactor. A self-sustained 1kW-class kerosene autothermal reformer is introduced in this paper. The 1kW-class kerosene reformer was continuously operated for about 140 hours without degradation of reforming performance.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.448-456
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• 2007

Performance of PEM fuel cell systems and hybrid systems combining a PEMFC with a gas turbine have been evaluated. Two different reforming methods(steam reforming and autothermal reforming) were considered. Performances of fuel cell systems with two reforming methods were compared and effects of various design parameters on the system performance were investigated. Configurations of PEM fuel cell systems with two reforming methods have been revised to accommodate a gas turbine, resulting in PEMFC/GT hybrid systems. Performance of the hybrid systems were analyzed and compared with those of PEM systems. Influences of major design parameters on the hybrid system performance were also investigated.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Energy Engineering kosee Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.155-158
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• 2004

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2009

The catalytic behavior of $Ni/Ce_XZr_{(1-X)}O_2$ loaded on the alumina coated honeycomb monolith was studied for the autothermal reforming reaction of methane. Among the catalysts with the different Ce/Zr ratios, the $Ni/Ce_{0.80}Zr_{0.20}O_2$ Catalyst showed the highest conversion of methane. By investigating the effect of Ni content on the $Ni/Ce_{0.80}Zr_{0.20}O_2$ catalysts, the catalyst loaded with 15wt% Ni had the highest activity. Also, $H_2$ yield was increased as $H_2O/CH_4$ ratio increased. Methane conversion was improved as $O_2/CH_4$ ratio was increased, whereas the yield of $H_2$ was decreased. Among the catalysts tested for 30 hours, $Ni(15wt%)/Ce_{0.80}Zr_{0.20}O_2$ showed the excellent conversion(${\geq}99%$) of methane and the stability at the condition of $GHSV=30,000h^{-1}$, feed ratio S/C/O=2/1/0.5 and reaction temperature $800^{\circ}C$.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.773-776
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• 2009

In this paper, new concept of the diesel fuel processing is introduced for the stable operation of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Heavier hydrocarbons than $CH_4$, such as ethylene, ethane, propane, and etc., induce the carbon deposition on anode of SOFCs. In the reformate of heavy hydrocarbons (diesel, gasoline, kerosene, and JP-8), concentration of ethylene is usually higher than low hydrocarbons such as ethane, propane, and butane. So, removal of low hydrocarbons (over C1-hydrocarbons), especially ethylene, at the reformate gases is important for stable operation of SOFCs. New methodology as named "post-reformer" is introduced for removing the low hydrocarbons at the reformate gas stream. Catalyst of the NECS-PR4 is selected for post-reforming catalyst because the catalyst of NECS-PR4 shows the high selectivity for removing low hydrocarbons and achieving the high reforming efficiency. The diesel reformer and post-reformer are continuously operated for about 200 hours as integrated mode. The reforming performance is not degraded and low hydrocarbons in the diesel reformate are completely removed.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.12-16
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• 2007

Temperature control of an autothermal methanol reforming reactor which uses the copper-zinc oxide catalyst was studied. Temperature at 1cm below the hot-spot point in the reactor was used for the controlled variable, and the air flow rate was used for the manipulated variable. A first order plus time delay model was identified and controller parameters were obtained by applying the IMC-PI tuning rule to the identified model. With this controller, we could control the reforming reactor temperature within ${\pm}5^{\circ}C$ over 100 hours. Change of the hot-spot point due to the catalyst degradation was investigated and it could be used to design an adaptive controller.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.474-480
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• 2011

Hydrocarbon is required to be converted to pure hydrogen without carbon monooxide (CO) for polymer exchange membran fuel cell (PEMFC) applications. In this paper, CO cleaning processes as the downstream of Dimethyl ehter (DME) autothermal reforming process were performed in micro-reactors. Our study suggested two kinds of water gas shift (WGS) reaction process: High Temperature shift (HTS) - Low Temperature shift (LTS), Middle temperature shift (MTS). Firstly, using perovskite catalyst for MTS was decreased effieiciency since methanation. Using HTS-LTS the CO concentration was decreased about 2% ($N_2$ & $H_2O$ free) with the reaction temperature of $420^{\circ}C$ and $235^{\circ}C$ for HTS and LTS, respectively. As the final stage of CO cleaning process, preferential oxidation (PROX) was applied. The amount of additional oxygen need 2 times of stoichiometric at $65^{\circ}C$. The total conversion reforming efficiency of 75% was gained.