• 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.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.37 no.8
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• pp.753-758
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• 2013

In this study, two proposals for the wall heating preconverter of an MCFC are numerically studied to resolve hot temperature generation near the wall by the low thermal conductivity of the catalyst. The numerical results show that the inserted porous cupper plates on the catalyst evidently improve heat transfer and realize more uniform reforming in the preconverter. The calculated results for the preconverter with a circumference empty space of catalyst located at center, 1/2 and 4/5 from center line are compared. The circumference empty space located at 1/2 position shows better results than other cases, but the positive effect on the uniform reforming process is less than in the case of inserted cupper porous plates on the catalyst.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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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 $27\;Nm^3/h$.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.58.2-58.2
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• 2012

Heavy hydrocarbon reforming is a core technology for "Dirty energy smart". Heavy hydrocarbons are components of fossil fuels, biomass, coke oven gas and etc. Heavy hydrocarbon reforming converts the fuels into $H_2$-rich syngas. And then $H_2$-rich syngas is used for the production of electricity, synthetic fuels and petrochemicals. Energy can be used efficiently and obtained from various sources by using $H_2$-rich syngas from heavy hydrocarbon reforming. Especially, the key point of "Dirty energy smart" is using "dirty fuel" which is wasted in an inefficient way. New energy conversion laboratory of KAIST has been researched diesel reforming for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) as a part of "Dirty energy smart". Diesel is heavy hydrocarbon fuels which has higher carbon number than natural gas, kerosene and gasoline. Diesel reforming has difficulties due to the evaporation of fuels and coke formation. Nevertheless, diesel reforming technology is directly applied to "Dirty fuel" because diesel has the similar chemical properties with "Dirty fuel". On the other hand, SOFC has advantages on high efficiency and wasted heat recovery. Nippon oil Co. of Japan recently commercializes 700We class SOFC system using city gas. Considering the market situation, the development of diesel reformer has a great ripple effect. SOFC system can be applied to auxiliary power unit and distributed power generation. In addition, "Dirty energy smart" can be realized by applying diesel reforming technology to "Dirty fuel". As well as material developments, multidirectional approaches are required to reform heavy hydrocarbon fuels and use $H_2$-rich gas in SOFC. Gd doped ceria (CGO, $Ce_{1-x}Gd_xO_{2-y}$) has been researched for not only electrolyte materials but also catalysts supports. In addition, catalysts infiltrated electrode over porous $La_{0.8}Sr_{0.2}Ga_{0.8}Mg_{0.2}O_3-{\delta}$ and catalyst deposition at three phase boundary are being investigated to improve the performance of SOFC. On the other hand, nozzle for diesel atomization and post-reforming for light-hydrocarbons removal are examples of solving material problems in multidirectional approaches. Likewise, multidirectional approaches are necessary to realize "Dirty energy smart" like reforming "Dirty fuel" for SOFC.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.1-11
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• 2011

The main objective of this paper is to investigate characteristic of steam reformer at various geometries and operating conditions. In this paper, the steam reforming is studied by a numerical method and three dimensional simulations were used for effective analytical study. User - Defined Function (UDF) was used to simultaneously calculate reforming and combustion reaction. And the numerical model is validated with experimental results at the same operating conditions. In order to understand the relationship between operating conditions such as gas hourly space velocity(GHSV), mass flow rate of combustor inlet, various numerical investigations are carries out for various geometries. Numerical results show that cylindrical geometry is more effective than rectangular geometry for heat transfer to reactors and reforming efficiency. As mass flow rate of combustor inlet increase, reaction occurs more faster and temperature increase with each geometry. On the other hand, reaction and hydrogen conversion decrease as mass flow rate of reactor decreases.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.82-88
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• 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.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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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.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.375-381
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• 2010

In this paper, the heat-transfer characteristics of steam reforming in an annular reactor are presented. Heat is supplied by the catalytic combustion of syn-gas. The thermal behaviors of exothermic and endothermic reactions in a directly coupled concentric-tube packed-bed reactor were investigated experimentally. The gas mixture supplied for catalytic combustion consisted of the off-gas emitted from MCFC anode. Methane in steam at a suitable S/C (steam-to-carbon) ratio was used in the reforming reactions. On the basis of the experimental results, a simple simulation was performed to predict the temperature profile required in the reforming side of the reactor to achieve optimum hydrogen yield. The results of this study may be utilized as reference data in future studies for further development of coupled reactors.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.226-236
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• 2013

The heat distribution and internal flow from the efficiency of actual reformer and specification variation, using the computer simulation and experiment about the steam methane reforming reaction which uses the high temperature reformer. Reaction model from steam refoemer uses the steam response model developed by Xu & Froment.As result we supposed the chemical react Steam Reforming(SR), Water Gas Shift(WGS), and Direct Steam Reforming(DSR) from the inner high temperature reformer dominates the response has dissimilar response. According to result of steam methane reforming reaction exam using high temperature reformer, we figured out when Steam Carbon Ratio(SCR) increase, number of hydrogen yield increases but methane decreases. When comparing and examining between design with one inlet and two inlet, result came out one inlet design is more outstanding at thermal distribution and internal flow, hydrogen yield in one inlet design than two inlet design.

• 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.