• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.497-503
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• 2008

Hydrogen is considered as a fuel of the future for its renewability and environmental compatibility. The reforming of hydrocarbon fuels is currently the most important source of hydrogen, which is expected to continue for next several decades. In this study, extensive CFD simulations on the steam-methane reforming process were conducted to study the performance of four reaction models, i.e. three Arrhenius-type models and a user-defined function (UDF) model. The accuracies of different reaction models for various operating temperatures and steam carbon ratios (SCRs) were evaluated by comparing their CFD results with zero-dimensional intrinsic model of Xu and Froment. It was found that the UDF model generally produced more accurate results than Arrhenius-type models. However, it was also shown that Arrhenius-type models could be made sufficiently accurate by choosing appropriate reaction coefficients, and thus could also be useful for the simulation of the steam-methane reforming process.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.69-74
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• 2015

The study investigated numerically the heat transfer and chemical reaction characteristics of a methane-steam reforming by using a 3-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code (Fluent ver. 16.1). The fuel temperature and its species mole fractions were estimated for various Reynolds number in the reformer tube at different burner temperatures. The catalysts were modeled as the porous medium of nicrome in the reformer tube. We considered radiation effect as well as conduction and convective heat transfer because the methane-steam was reformed at very high temperature condition above 1000 K. For two different Reynolds numbers of 49,000 and 88,000 and the burner temperatures were in the range from 1,100 K to 1,300 K. At a low Reynolds number, the fuel temperature increased, leading to increase in hydrogen reforming. However, fuel temperature and hydrogen reforming decreased because of higher convective heat transfer from relatively low fuel temperature. Moreover, the hydrogen reforming also increased with burner temperature.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.328-339
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• 2023

Methanol steam reforming (MSR) is a promising method for hydrogen supplying as a critical step in hydrogen fuel cell commercialization in mobile applications. Modelling and understanding of the reactor behavior is an attractive research field to develop an efficient reformer. Three-layer feed-forward artificial neural network (ANN) and Box-Behnken design (BBD) were used to modelling of MSR process using the Cu-SiO₂ aerogel catalyst. Furthermore, impacts of the basic operational variables and their mutual interactions were studied. The results showed that the most affecting parameters were the reaction temperature (56%) and its quadratic term (20.5%). In addition, it was also found that the interaction between temperature and Steam/Methanol ratio is important on the MSR performance. These models precisely predict MSR performance and have great agreement with experimental results. However, on the basis of statistical criteria the ANN technique showed the greater modelling ability as compared with statistical BBD approach.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.61-66
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• 2022

In order to introduce the hydrogen economy and increase supply, research in the field of hydrogen production is being actively conducted. Among the hydrogen production methods, the method of steam reforming from natural gas and producing it currently accounts for about 50% of the global hydrogen production. In the method of steam reforming process, hydrogen can be produced by adding a reformer to an existing natural gas supply pipe. Because of these advantages, it is evaluated as a realistic production method at present in Korea, where the city gas supply chain is well established. But there is concern in that it is highly likely to be installed in downtown areas and residential spaces. In this study, the risk of the process of steam reforming to produce hydrogen was reviewed.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.3136-3139
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• 2008

The object of the paper is to design two PI controllers. One provides the stable target temperature to the steam reforming reactor in 1kW PEMFC system. The other controls burner to operate within a permissible range of temperature. Feedforward control is applied to obtain temperature stability against disturbances such as changes of operating condition resulted from load change. Step response tests show that these controller work well with an error tolerance of $5^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Institute of Convergence Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.19-23
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• 2022

Interest in hydrogen production to respond to climate change is increasing. Until now, hydrogen has been mainly produced through the SMR (Steam Methane Reforming) process using natural gas. A large amount of CO₂ is emitted in the hydrogen production process through SMR, and the gas flow including CO₂ generated in the SMR process has different characteristics for each emission source, so it is important to apply a suitable CO₂ capture process. In the case of PSA tail gas or synthesis gas, the applicability of an amine-based process has been confirmed or demonstrated close to a commercial level. However, in the case of the flue gas generated from the reformer, it is still difficult to apply the conventional amine-based process because the partial pressure of CO₂ is relatively low. Energy-saving innovative absorbents such as phase separation absorbents can be a solution to these difficulties.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.126-134
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• 2024

Biogas, composed mainly of methane (CH₄) and carbon dioxide (CO₂), is a renewable gas that can serve as an alternative energy source. In this study, we developed a new microwave reformer and analyzed its reforming characteristics. We observed that higher temperatures of the microwave receptor led to increased reforming efficiency. By supplying appropriate amounts of methane and steam, we could prevent carbon generated from the thermal decomposition reaction of carbon dioxide from depositing on the catalytic active layer, thus avoiding the inhibition of catalytic activity. Hydrogen generation was enhanced when maintaining the biogas ratio and steam supply at adequate levels. Increasing the SiC ratio in the receptor improved the uniformity of temperature distribution and growth rate, resulting in higher conversion rates of the reforming process.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.34 no.12
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• pp.840-846
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• 2012

Global climate changes caused by $CO_2$ emissions are currently debated around the world; green sources of energy are being sought as alternatives to replace fossil fuels. The sustainable use of biogas for energy production does not contribute to $CO_2$ emission and has therefore a high potential to reduce them. Catalytic steam reforming of a model biogas ($CH_4:CO_2$ = 60%:40%) is investigated to produce $H_2$-rich synthesis gas. The biogas utilized 3D-IR matrix burner in which the surface combustion is applied. The ruthenium catalyst was used inside a reformer. Parametric screening studies were achieved as Steam/Carbon ratio, biogas component ratio, Space velocity and Reformer temperature. When the condition of Steam/Carbon ratio, $CH_4/CO_2$ ratio, Space velocity and Refomer temperature were 3.25, 60% : 40%, $14.7L/g{\cdot}hr$ and $550^{\circ}C$ respectively, the hydrogen concentration and methane conversion rate were showed maximum values. Under the condition mentioned above, $H_2$ yield, $H_2$/CO ratio, CO selectivity and energy efficiency were 0.65, 2.14, 0.59, 51.29%.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.238-243
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to search the temperature-rise time conditions for adequate reforming temperature region of hydrogen generation system. And we measured theexhaust gas at the exit of that system in order to know the combustion state of hydrogen generation system's combustor. We found the optimum condition of heat supply and temperature-rise time at well burned state. And the results were nearly same when the reactants were entered to each reactors. We will further consider the effects of temperature change near the exothermic reactors and find out hydrogen yield through reforming experiment.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.132-139
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• 2007

Popular techniques for producing synthesis gas by converting methane include steam reforming and catalyst reforming. However, these are high temperature and high pressure processes limited by equipment, cost and difficulty of operation. Low temperature plasma is projected to be a technique that can be used to produce high concentration hydrogen from methane. It is suitable for miniaturization and for application in other technologies. In this research, the effect of changing each of the following variables was studied using an AC Glidarc system that was conceived by the research team: the gas components ratio, the gas flow rate, the catalyst reactor temperature and voltage. Glidarc plasma reformer was consisted of 3 electrodes and an AC power source. And air was added for the partial oxidation reaction of methane. The result showed that as the gas flow rate, the catalyst reactor temperature and the electric power increased, the methane conversion rate and the hydrogen concentration also increased. With $O_2/C$ ratio of 0.45, input flow rate of 4.9 l/min and power supply of 1 kW as the reference condition, the methane conversion rate, the high hydrogen selectivity and the reformer energy density were 69.2%, 36.2% and 35.2% respectively.