• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Energy Engineering kosee Conference
• /
• 2004.05a
• /
• pp.91-96
• /
• 2004

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.9 no.7
• /
• pp.956-960
• /
• 1998

Cu-Zn and Cu-Zn-Ti catalysts for the steam reforming of methanol were prepared. This reaction was carried out at atmospheric pressure, $250^{\circ}C$, steam/methanol molar ratio 1.5, and contact time 0.1 g-cat.hr/mL-feed. In case of the catalyst with 3 mol% of $TiO_2$, the activity was superior to that of catalysts without $TiO_2$. The reaction products were mainly hydrogen and carbon dioxide. It was found that catalytic activity was not related to specific surface area but affected by metallic copper area which was measured by $N_2O$ decomposition and increased with the addition of $TiO_2$ content. XPS and XRD showed that the oxidation state of zinc was not changed during reaction, but oxidation states of copper existed in Cu(0) or Cu(I).

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.82-88
• /
• 2020

Recently, a fuel reforming plant for supplying high purity hydrogen has been studied to increase the operation time of underwater weapon systems. Since steam reforming is an endothermic reaction, it is necessary to continuously supply heat to the reactor. A fuel reforming plant needs a methanol-O₂ catalytic burner to obtain heat and supply heat to the reformer. In this study, two types of designs of a catalytic burner are presented and the results are analyzed through the experiments. The design of the catalytic burner is divided into that the O₂ supply direction is perpendicular to the methanol flow direction (Design 1) and the same as the methanol flow direction (Design 2). In case of Design 1, backfire and flame combustion occurred in the mixing space in front of the catalyst, and in the absence of the mixing space, combustion reaction occurred only in a part of the catalyst. For above reasons, Design 1 could not increase the exhaust gas temperature to 750℃. In Design 2, no flashback and flame combustion were observed, the exhaust gas could be maintained up to 750℃. However, the O₂ distributor was exposed to high temperatures, resulting in thermal damage.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.261-268
• /
• 1996

Various $Cu/SiO_2$ catalysts with copper concentration ranging from 0 to 50wt% were prepared by kneading method for the steam reforming of methanol. These catalysts were calcined at temperatures in the range of $400^{\circ}C{\sim}900^{\circ}C$ and then reduced in a $H_2$ atmosphere in the range of $150^{\circ}C{\sim}350^{\circ}C$. Steam reforming of methanol was carried out at atmospheric pressure over a temperature range of $200^{\circ}C{\sim}400^{\circ}C$, steam/methanol molar ratio of 0.4~1.6 and W/F of 3~25 g.-cat.hr./mol. Characterization of the catalysts was studied using IR, BET and XRD. Using copper nitrate as a precursor for catalysts, pH in the preparation of catalysts had a great effect on the catalytic activity, but pH in the preparation of catalysts, calcination temperature, and reducing temperature in $H_2$ atmosphere had no effect on the product distribution. Optimum copper concentration, calcination temperature and reducing temperature were 40wt%, $700^{\circ}C$ and $300^{\circ}C$, respective)y. Reaction temperature for maximum $H_2$ production was $275^{\circ}C$, and the formation of methane which lowered quantity and quality of $H_2$ would be inhibited below $275^{\circ}C$. $Cu^{\circ}-Cu_2O$ might be active species in $Cu/SiO_2$ catalyst.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.105-112
• /
• 2022

Copper (Cu)-based catalysts have been widely used in a methanol steam reforming (MSR) reaction for hydrogen production for air-independent propulsion (AIP) applications and their good catalytic activities have attracted much attention. However, the agglomeration of the catalytic active site Cu causes deteriorating the catalytic performance and suppression of Cu agglomeration is a crucial issue in the AIP applications that the MSR system is typically operated at 250-300℃ for a long time. R. Sakai et al. recently showed a computational study on the anchoring effect that reduces an agglomeration of active sites by doping in a supporter. In order to present the anchoring effect on 𝛾-Al₂O₃ supported Cu-based catalysts, in this study, the adsorption energies of Cu on X-doped (X=ruthenium, phosphorus, silicon) 𝛾-Al₂O₃ were calculated and Cu adsorption energy decreased due to a change of the electronic structure originated from doping, thereby proving the anchoring effect.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.329-335
• /
• 2020

Methanol synthesized from renewable hydrogen and captured CO2 has recently attracted great interest as a sustainable energy carrier for large-scale renewable energy storage. In this study, molten carbonate fuel cell's performance was investigated with the direct conversion of methanol into syngas inside the anode chamber of the cell. The internal reforming of methanol may significantly improve system efficiency since the heat generated from the electrochemical reaction can be used directly for the endothermic reforming reaction. The porous Ni-10 wt%Cr anode was sufficient for the methanol steam reforming reaction under the fuel cell operating condition. The direct supply of methanol into the anode chamber resulted in somewhat lower cell performance, especially at high current density. Recycling of the product gas into the anode gas inlet significantly improved the cell performance. The analysis based on material balance revealed that, with increasing current density and gas recycling ratio, the methanol steam reforming reaction rate likewise increased. A methanol conversion more significant than 90% was achieved with gas recycling. The results showed the feasibility of electricity and syngas co-production using the molten carbonate fuel cell. Further research is needed to optimize the fuel cell operating conditions for simultaneous production of electricity and syngas, considering both material and energy balances in the fuel cell.

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

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.201-208
• /
• 2019

Recently, a fuel reforming plant for supplying high purity hydrogen is being applied to submarines. Since steam reforming is an endothermic reaction, it is necessary to continuously supply heat to the reactor. A fuel reforming plant for a submarine needs a multi-stage burner (MSB) to acquire heat and convert the combustion gas to $CO_2+H_2O$. The MSB has problems that the combustion imbalance occurs during start-up due to the temperature restriction of the combustion gas. This problems can be solved by burning $H_2O$ together with fuel and $O_2$. In this study, the simulation results of MSB were analyzed to determine the optimum flow rate of $H_2O$ supplied to the 6-stage burner. When the flow rate of $H_2O$ was low, combustion was concentrated on the burner#6 in comparison with the burner#1-#5. This combustion concentration improved as the supply amount of $H_2O$ increased. As a results, it was necessary to supply at least 4.9 kmol/h of $H_2O$ (per 1 kmol/h of fuel) to burner#1 in order to maintain the combustion gas temperature of each stage at $750^{\circ}C$ and to convert the final stage burner gas composition to $CO_2+H_2O$.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.105-113
• /
• 2014

Performance tests on $Ni/Ce-ZrO_2/Al_2O_3$ catalysts with additives (MgO, $La_2O_3$) were investigated in the combined reforming processes (SCR, ATR, TRM) in order to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide (it is called "syngas".). The catalyst characterization was conducted using the BET surface analyzer, X-ray diffraction (XRD), SEM, TPR and TGA. The combined reforming process was developed to adjust the syngas ratio depending on the synthetic fuel (methanol, DME and GTL) manufacturing processes. Ni-based catalysts supported on alumina has been generally recommended as a combined reforming reaction catalyst. It was found that both free NiO and complexed NiO species were responsible for the catalytic activity in the combined reforming of methane conversion, and the $Ce-ZrO_2$ binary support employed had improved the oxygen storage capacity and thermal stability. The additives, MgO and $La_2O_3$, also seemed to play an important role to prevent the formation of the carbon deposition over the catalysts. The experimental results were compared with the equilibrium data using a commercial simulation tool (PRO/II).

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.40 no.11
• /
• pp.745-753
• /
• 2016

Micro methanol-steam reformer for fuel cell can effectively produce hydrogen as reforming response to steam takes place in low temperature (less than $250^{\circ}C$). This study conducted numerical research on this reformer. First, study set wall temperature of the reformer at 100, 140, 180 and $220^{\circ}C$ while methanol conversion efficiency was set in 0, 0.072, 3.83 and 46.51% respectively. Then, porosity of catalyst was set in 0.1, 0.35, 0.6 and 0.85 and although there was no significant difference in methanol conversion efficiency, values of pressure drop were 4645.97, 59.50, 5.12 and 0.45 kPa respectively. This study verified that methanol-steam reformer rarely responds under the temperature of $180^{\circ}C$ and porosity does not have much effect on methanol conversion efficiency if the fluid flowing through reformer lowers activation energy by sufficiently contacting reformer.