• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.30 no.12 s.255
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• pp.1196-1202
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• 2006

A MEMS methanol reformer was fabricated and its performance was evaluated in the present study. Catalytic steam reforming of methanol was selected because the process had been widely applied in macro scale reformers. Conventional Cu/ZnO catalyst that was prepared by co-precipitation method to give the highest coating quality was used. The reactor structure was made by bonding three layers of glass wafers. The internal structure of the wafer was fabricated by the wet-etching process that resulted in a high aspect ratio. The internal surface of the reactor was coated by catalyst and individual wafers were fusion-bonded to form the reactor structure. The internal volume of the microfabricated reactor was $0.3cm^3$ and the reactor produced exhaust gas with hydrogen concentration at 73%. The production rate of hydrogen was 4.16 ml/hr that could generate power of 350 mW in a typical PEM fuel cell.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.58-63
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• 2005

As fuel cells approach commercialization, hydrogen production becomes a critical step in the overall energy conversion pathway. Reforming is a process that produces a hydrogen-rich gas from hydrocarbon fuels. Hydrogen production via autothermal reforming (ATR) is particularly attractive for applications that demand a quick start-up and response time in a compact size. However, further research is required to optimize the performance of autothermal reformers and accurate models of reactor performance must be developed and validated. The design includes the requirement of accommodating a wide range of experimental set ups. Factors considered in the design of the reformer are capability to use multiple fuels, ability to vary stoichiometry, precise temperature and pressure control, implementation of enhancement methods, capability to implement variable catalyst positions and catalyst arrangement, ability to monitor and change reactant mixing, and proper implementation of data acquisition. A model of the system was first developed in order to calculate flowrates, heating, space velocity, and other important parameters needed to select the hardware that comprises the reformer. Predicted performance will be compared to actual data once the reformer construction is completed. This comparison will quantify the accuracy of the model and should point to areas where further model development is required. The end result will be a research tool that allows engineers to optimize hydrogen production via autothermal reformation.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.304-312
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• 2002

In this study, the performance of the $5Nm^3/hr$ compact type steam reformer which was developed for application of fuel cell or hydrogen station was evaluated in terms of gas process efficiency. For these purposes, reforming efficiency and total efficiency with system load change were analyzed. The reforming efficiency was calculated from the total molar flow of hydrogen output over total fuel flow input to the reformer and the burner on the higher heating value(HHV). In the case of the total efficiency, recovered heat at the heat recovery exchanger was considered. From the results, it was known that system performance was stable, because methane conversion showed the a slight decline which is about 2% though increasing system load to full. Reforming efficiency was increased from 20% to 58%, respectively as increasing system load from 10% to 90%. It was found that total efficiency was higher then reforming efficiency because of terms of heat recovered. As a results, it was known that total efficiency was increased form 75% to 83% at the 10% and 90% system load, respectively. From these results, it is concluded that compact steam reformer which is composed of stacking plate-type reactors is suitable to on-site hydrogen generator or to fuel cell application because of quick start within 1 hr and good performance.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.200-207
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• 1993

A methanol reformer was designed and fabricated using a CuO-ZnO low temperature shift catalyst, and its operation characteristics have been studied for the phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC) power generation system. The type of reactor was annular Methanol was consumed both for heating and for reforming fuel. Contents of carbon monoxide produced from the reformer increased as the reaction temperatures increased, but decreased as the mole ratios of water to methanol(H$_2$O/CH$_3$OH) increased. At steady state operating conditional, temperature profile of the catalytic reactor of the reformer was well coincide with the model equation, and it took 50 minutes from start to the rated condition of the reformer. When the system was operated at 4/4 and 1/4 of load, thermal efficiencies of the system were 72.3% and 77%, respectively. When the PAFC system was operated with reformed gas in the range of 62 V-37.6 V and 0-147 A, the trend of I-V curve showed a typical fuel tell characteristic. At steady state condition, the flow rates of reforming and combustion methanol were 88.1 mol/h and 50.1 mol/h, respectively.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.156-163
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• 2015

The fuel cells have been investigated in the applications of marine as the high efficient and eco-friendly power generating systems. In this study, modeling of IR Type molten carbonate fuel cell (Internal Reforming Type molten carbonate fuel cell) has been developed to analyze the feasibility of thermal energy utilization. The model is developed under Aspen plus and used for the study of system performances over regarding fuel types. The simulation results show that the efficiency of MCFC system based on NG fuel is the highest. Also, it is also verified that the steam reforming is suitable as pre-reforming for diesel fuel.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.30 no.8 s.251
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• pp.731-740
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• 2006

The solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is expected to be a candidate for distributed power sources in the next generation, due to its high efficiency and high-temperature waste heat utilization. In this study, the 5-cell SOFC stack was operated with pure hydrogen or reformed gas at anode side and air at cathode side. When stack was operated with diesel and methane ATR reformer, the influence of the $H_2O/C,\;O_2/C$ and GHSV on performance of stacks have been investigated. The result shows that the cell voltage was decreased with the increase of $H_2O/C$ and $O_2/C$ due to the partial pressure of fuel and water, and cell voltage was more sensitive to $O_2/C$ than $H_2O/C$. Next, the dynamic model of SOFC system included with ATR reformer was established and compared with experimental data. Based on dynamic model, the operation strategy to optimize SOFC-Reformer system was suggested and simulated.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.286-294
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• 2010

According to the propagation of fuel cell system, the importance of that system efficiency is being magnified. Thus, the efficiency improvement of reformer which is the important part of fuel cell system will be required. In structural aspect, the reformer is classified into cylindrical and plate type. Plate type reformer features better maintenance and space efficiency compared with cylindrical type. In this study, we changed the shape of combustion chamber to improve the reforming efficiency. And then we performed the CFD simulation to predict the spacial distribution of temperature. Analysis cased contains with baffles, fins, baffles and fins, and without those. In case of only with-baffle, temperature distributions were uneven because the high temperature stream was concentrated near the baffle end. In case of with-fin, the temperature distributions were relatively even than other cases.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.411-418
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• 2020

A reformer is a device for producing hydrogen used in fuel cells. Among them, methanol steam reformer uses methanol as fuel, which is present as a liquid at room temperature. It has the advantage of low operating temperature, high energy density, and high hydrogen production. The purpose of this study is to improve the internal flow of the pressure vessel when a bundle of methanol steam reformer in the pressure vessel goes out to a single outlet. An analysis of equilibrium reaction to methanol steam reforming reaction was conducted using Aspen HYSYS^® (Aspen Technology Inc., Bedford, USA), and based on the results, computational analysis was conducted using ANSYS Fluent^® (ANSYS, Inc., Canonsburg, USA). For comparison of the results, the height of the pressure vessel, outlet diameter, and fillet was set as variables, and the optimum geometry was selected by comparing the effects of gravity and the amount of negative pressure.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.159-167
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• 2002

The operation results of the 2kW class plate type reformer, which has several advantages compared with the tubular burner type reformer, are analyzed. This plate type reformer is composed of six combustion chambers and five reforming chambers by turns. The methane conversion rate at 1.6 absolute pressure is about 84%, which is reasonably similar to theoretical value, 85.3%. Though the abrupt interruption was made just by the carbon deposition during heating the fuel line to combustion chambers around 200 hours operation, the overall steady state operation is more than 450 hours. These operation results show the verification of long run performance and the possibility of direct connection between plate reformer and fuel cell stack.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.113-120
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• 2013

A steam reformer is a chemical reactor to produce high purity hydrogen from fossil fuel. In the steam reformer, since endothermic steam reforming is heated by exothermic combustion of fossil fuel, the heat transfer between two reaction zones dominates conversion of fossil fuel to hydrogen. Steam Reforming is complex chemical reaction, mass and heat transfer due to the exothermic methane/air combustion reaction and the endothermic steam reforming reaction. Typically, a steam reformer employs burner to supply appropriate heat for endothermic steam reforming reaction which reduces system efficiency. In this study, the heat of steam reforming reaction is provided by anode-off gas combustion of stationary fuel cell. This paper presents a optimization of heat transfer effect and average temperature of cross-section using two-dimensional models of a coaxial cylindrical reactor, and analysis three-dimensional models of a coaxial cylindrical steam reformer with chemical reaction. Numerical analysis needs to dominant chemical reaction that are assumed as a Steam Reforming (SR) reaction, a Water-Gas Shift (WGS) reaction, and a Direct Steam Reforming(DSR) reaction. The major parameters of analysis are temperature, fuel conversion and heat flux in the coaxial reactor.