• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.158.2-158.2
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• 2011

DME is acronym of dimethyl ether, which is spotlighted as an ideal fuel to produce hydrogen due to its high hydrogen/carbon ratio, high energy density and easiness to carry. In this research, we calculated thermodynamic hydrogen (or syngas) yield from DME autothermal reforming and compared to other fuels. The reforming efficiency was about 80% above $700^{\circ}C$. Lower OCR has higher reforming efficiency but, it requires additional heat supply since the reactions are endothermic. SCR has no significant effect on the reforming efficiency. The optimized condition is $700^{\circ}C$, SCR 1.5, OCR 0.45 without additional heat supply. Comparing to other commercial gaseous fuels (methane and propane), DME has higher selectivity of $H_2O$ and $CO_2$ than the others due to the oxygen atom in the molecule. To apply DME autothermal reforming to real system, a proper catalyst is required. Therefore, it is performed the experiment comparing various novel metal catalysts based on CGO. Experiments were performed at calculated condition. The composition of product was measured and reforming efficiency was calculated. The catalysts have similar efficiency at high temperature(${\sim}800^{\circ}C$) but, CGO-Ru has the highest efficiency at low temperature ($600^{\circ}C$).

• 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.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.234-243
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• 2006

Diesel autothermal reforming (ATR) is a chemical process to produce hydrogen for fuel cell applications. Several previous studies were carried out to identify technical issues in diesel reforming. It is hard to vaporize diesel due to its high boiling points. Liquid droplets of diesel result in inhomogeneous fuel mixing with other reactants such as $O_2\;and\;H_2O$, which leads to reduce the reforming efficiency and make undesired coke in reactor. To solve the fuel delivery issue, we applied an ultrasonic device as a fuel injection system. Ultrasonic injector (UI) remarkably enhanced the reforming efficiency. This paper will present the reforming results using UI. And we will discuss about atomization effects of diesel on autothermal reforming reaction.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.12-25
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• 2007

Numerical simulation of the natural gas steam reforming process for on-site hydrogen production in a $H_2$ fueling station was conducted on the basis of process material and heat balances. The effects of reforming parameters on the process efficiency of hydrogen production were investigated, and set-point values of each of the parameters to minimize the sizes of unit process equipments and to secure a stable operability of the reforming process were suggested. S/C ratio of the reforming reactants was found to be a crucial parameter in the reforming process mostly governing both the hydrogen production efficiency and the stable operability of the process. The operation of the process was regarded to be stable if the feed water(WR) as a reforming reactant could evaporate completely to dry steam through HRSG. The optimum S/C ratio was 3.0 where the process efficiency of hydrogen production was maximized and the stable operability of the process was secured. The optimum feed rates of natural gas(NGR) and WR as reforming reactants and natural gas(NGB) as a burner fuel were also determined for the hydrogen production rate of $27\;Nm^3/h$.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2018

A high efficiency integrated reforming system for improving the efficiency of the 5 kW PEMFC system used as the back up power of building was studied. The separated reforming system consisted of three parts - A steam reformer with two stage concentric circular shape, a heat exchanger type steam generator and a CO shift reactor. Temperature and steam carbon ratio (SCR) were control variables during operation. The operating conditions were optimized based on the thermal efficiency of the steam reformer as reformate gas composition changes at different temperature. In experiments, water was fully vaporized in the steam generator up to SCR 3.5 and the maximum thermal efficiency was achieved at the operating temperature around $700^{\circ}C$ in the steam reforming reactor. With the results of the separated reforming system research, we improved the shape of high efficiency integrated reformer. The performance evaluation of the integrated reformer was based on optimized operating conditions in SCR 3.5. As a result, the developed integrated reforming system maintained an efficiency of 76% and constant performance over 3,000 hours.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2015-2020
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• 2007

Diesel is an excellent candidate fuel for fuel cell applications due to its high hydrogen density and well-established infrastructure. But, it is hard to guarantee desirable performance of diesel reformer because diesel reforming has several problems such as sulfur poisoning of catalyst and carbon deposition. We have been focusing on diesel autothermal reforming(ATR) for substantial period. It is reported that ATR of diesel has several technical advantages such as relatively high efficiency and fuel conversion compared to steam reforming(SR) and partial oxidation(POX). In this paper, we investigate characteristics of diesel reforming under various ratios of reactants(oxygen to carbon ratio, steam to carbon ratio) for improvement of reforming performances(high reforming efficiency, high fuel conversion, low carbon deposition). We also exhibit calculated heat balance of autothermal reformer at each condition to help thermal management of SOFC system.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.36-45
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• 2011

The heat-flow characteristics and reforming efficiency of steam reformer with combustor are numerically investigated at various operating conditions. SCR(Steam to Carbon Ratio) and GHSV(Gas Hourly Space Velocity) are adopted as important operating conditions. User-Defined-Function(UDF) was used to simultaneously calculate reforming and combustion reaction. Numerical results show that hot burned gas rise by a buoyant force and heat exchange between reforming reactors and cocurrent flow occurs in the combustion region. The results also indicate that an increase of SCR leads to decrease the mole fraction of hydrogen at the reactor outlet. As GHSV increases, conversion rate decreases.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.97.1-97.1
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• 2011

Dimethyl ether (DME) is an attractive fuel as a hydrogen carrier for mobile PEMFC applications. However, its reforming technologies are rarely studied especially by using autothermal reforming (ATR) method. This work explored the impact of operating conditions to the performance of DME ATR. Temperature, Steam to carbon ratio(SCR), Oxygen to carbon ratio(OCR) and Gas hourly space velocity(GHSV) were considered as the operating conditions. As results, conversion efficiency was increased as the temperature increased, but saturated around $700^{\circ}C$. There was no significant effect of SCR on conversion efficiency, but high SCR led reactions in endothermic manner. High OCR substantially suppressed conversion efficiency, but it helped to sustain the temperature by stimulating exothermic reactions. Conversion efficiency was decreased as GHSV increased. The optimized operating conditions was suggested: $700^{\circ}C$, SCR of 1.5, OCR of 0.45 and GHSV below 15000/h and conversion efficiency was ~85% at the conditions.

• 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 the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.78-84
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• 2013

A numerical study on the heat and fluid flow has carried out for the design of the steam reforming reactor which consists of six reforming tubes and one burner. Reforming reaction calculation is coupled with the heat and fluid flow one. The burner type in the reforming reactor is chosen through the fluid flow calculation according to different type of burner structure. It is shown that the significant temperature gradient exists in the reforming reactor, affecting the component variation along the length of reforming tube. The component ratio of reforming gas is changed by the variation of SCR and GHSV.