• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.269-274
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• 2014

The experimental performance evaluation of a cylindrical steam reformer with various thermal conditions has been conducted. The bottom space of the cylindrical reactor was packed with Ruthenium (Ru) catalyst. A three-segment furnace was installed to create the axially variable boundary temperature distribution. Six K-type thermocouples were inserted into the catalyst layer, and three exhaust ports were fabricated on the side wall along the flow direction. The exhausted gases at each port were analyzed by using gas chromatograph (GC) system. The experimental results showed that the reforming reaction occurs intensively in the upstream region and more hydrogen is obtained when the intake gas is sufficiently heated up through the enhanced steam reforming (SR) reaction. The axially increasing boundary temperature setup provided the maximally accumulated reforming efficiency of 74.8%, when the reactor was placed at the 3rd section of the furnace.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.9
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• pp.885-894
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• 2012

A numerical study of a microchannel steam methane reforming reactor has been performed to understand the characteristics of heat and mass transfer. The integration of Rh-catalyzed steam methane reforming and Pt-catalyzed methane combustion has been simulated. The reaction rates for chemical reactions have been incorporated into the simulation. This study investigated the effect of contact time, flow pattern (parallel or counter), and channel size on the reforming performance and temperature distribution. The parallel and counter flow have opposite temperature distribution, and they show a different type of reaction rate and species mole fraction. As the contact time decreases and channel size increases, mass transfer between the catalyst layer and the flow is limited, and the reforming performance is decreased.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.243-247
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• 2009

This study is purposed to analyze thermodynamic properties on the hydrogen production by ethylene glycol steam reforming. Various reaction conditions of temperatures(300~1,600 K), feed compositions(steam/carbon= 0.5~4.5), and pressures(1~30 atm) were applied to investigate the effects of the reaction conditions on the thermodynamic properties of dimethyl ether steam reforming. An endothermic steam reforming competed with an exothermic water gas shift reaction and an exothermic methanation within the applied reaction condition. Hydrogen production was initiated at the temperature of 400 K and the production rate was promoted at temperatures exceeding 500 K. An increase of steam to carbon ratio(S/C) in feed mixture over 1.0 resulted in the increase of the water gas shift reaction, which lowered the formation of carbon monoxide. The maximum hydrogen yield with minimizing loss of thermodynamic conversion efficiency was achieved at the reaction conditions of a temperature of 900 K and a steam to carbon ratio of 3.0.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.1997-2002
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• 2007

The reformer is one of the most important chemical processes for the production of high purity hydrogen from fossil fuel. This study compares zero-dimensional model with CFD models for reaction analysis of methane-steam reformer. The zero-dimensional model is an empirical equation, however CFD model uses reactions of Arrhenius type. Because the reaction coefficients of the steam-methane catalytic reforming have not been reported before in the form of Arrhenius type, the present study aims to find the appropriate reaction coefficients. The used CFD code is Fluent 6.2 version. Several models are compared for the case of various operating temperature, mass of catalyst and steam to methane ratio.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.1-7
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• 2006

A reaction mechanism of methane partial oxidation, which consists of thermal and plasma chemistry reaction pathways, has been investigated using with an arc-jet reactor. The reaction zone of the arc-jet reactor is spatially separated into thermal and non-thermal plasma zone. Methane conversion rates, selectivity of $H_2$ and $C_2$ chemicals in each zone are obtained, which reveals clearly different characteristics of reaction pathways depending on the temperature conditions. The conversion rates obtained in thermal plasma zone is higher than those in non-thermal plasma zone. The selectivity, however, obtained in non-thermal plasma zone is significantly higher than those in thermal plasma zone. Further parametric study on $O_2/C$ ratio, arc length and SED shows that the present process is mainly governed by thermal chemistry pathways.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.33 no.9
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• pp.709-717
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• 2009

Heat transfer rate is a very important factor for the performance of a steam reformer because a steam reforming reaction is an endothermic reaction. Coaxial cylindrical reactor is the reactor design which can improve the heat transfer rate. Temperature, fuel conversion and heat flux in the coaxial cylindrical steam reformer are studied in this paper using numerical method under various operating conditions. Langmuir-Hinshelwood model and pseudo-homogeneous model are incorporated for the catalytic surface reaction. Dominant chemical reactions are assumed as a Steam Reforming (SR) reaction, a Water-Gas Shift (WGS) reaction, and a Direct Steam Reforming (DSR) reaction. Although coaxial cylindrical steam reformer uses 33% less amount of catalyst than cylindrical steam reformer, its fuel conversion is increased 10 % more and its temperature is also high as about 30 degree. There is no heat transfer limitation near the inlet area at coaxial-type reactor. However, pressure drop of the coaxial cylindrical reactor is 10 times higher than that of cylindrical reactor. Operating parameters of coaxial cylindrical steam reformer are the wall temperature, the inlet temperature, and the Gas Hourly Space Velocity (GHSV). When the wall temperature is high, the temperature and the fuel conversion are increased due to the high heat transfer rate. The fuel conversion rate is increased with the high inlet temperature. However, temperature drop clearly occurs near the inlet area since an endothermic reaction is active due to the high inlet temperature. When GHSV is increased, the fuel conversion is decreased because of the heat transfer limitation and short residence time.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.267-274
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• 2009

Considerable attention has been given to developing methodologies to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide from industry to meet strengthened environmental regulations. In this article, recent research trends on dry reforming of methane as an alternative method to reduce $CO_2$ emission from large scale industrial processes are addressed. To efficiently provide the energy needed in this strong endothermic reaction without additional $CO_2$ emission, it seems to be desirable to adopt autothermal reaction mode. The produced synthesis gas could be used as a reducing gas, or a feedstock for synthesis of chemicals and fuels.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.119-126
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• 2002

The methanol partial oxidation using commercial $CuO/ZnO/Al_2O_3$ catalysts in a plug flow reactor was studied in the temperature range of $200{\sim}250^{\circ}C$ at atmospheric pressure, It was achieved the high activities by Cu-based catalysts and the selectivity of $CO_2$/$H_2$ was 100% when $O_2$ was fully convened. The reactivity changes and their hysteresis with increasing/decreasing temperatures were observed due to the chemical state differences between the oxidation and the reduction on the Cu surface, It was suggested as the two-step reaction: the complete oxidation and the following steam reforming for methanol, which was indicated by the distributions of final products vs. the residence time. In addition, the complete oxidation step was shown to be extremely fast and the total reaction rate can be controlled by the steam reforming reaction.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.888-888
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• 2009

A simulation study on SCR (Steam Carbon dioxide Reforming) process in gas-to-liquid (natural gas to Fischer-Tropsch synthetic fuel) process was carried out in order to find optimum reaction conditions for GTL (gas-to-liquid) process reaction. Optimum SCR operating conditions for synthesis gas to FT (Fischer-Tropsch) process were determined by changing reaction variables such as feed temperature and pressure. During the simulation, overall synthesis process was assumed to proceed under steady-state conditions. It was also assumed that physical properties of reaction medium were governed by RKS (Redlich-Kwong-Soave) equation. SCR process was considered as reaction models for synthesis gas in GTL proess. The effect of temperature and pressure on SCR process $H_2$/CO ratio and the effect of reaction pressure on SCR reaction were mainly examined. Simulation results were also compared to experimental results to confirm the reliability of simulation model. Simulation results were reasonably well matched with experimental results.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.63-66
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• 2007

Reformers which produce hydrogen from natural gas are essential for the operation of residential PEM fuel cells. For this purpose, steam-methane reforming reactions with Ni catalysts is primarily utilized. Commercial Ni catalysts are generally made to have porous pellet shapes in which Ni catalyst particles are uniformly dispersed over Alumina support structures. This study numerically investigates the reduction of catalyst effectiveness due to the mass transport resistances posed by porous structures of spherical catalyst pellets. The multi-component diffusion through porous media and the accurate kinetics of reforming reaction is fully considered in the numerical model. The preliminary results on the variation of the effectiveness factor according to different operation conditions are presented, which is planned to be used to develop correlations in future studies.