• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.75-81
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• 2007

Steam reforming of methane using Xe-arc solar simulator was studied for the application of concentrated solar energy into chemical reaction. The reactor, a volumetric absorber, consisted of a porous ceramic foam disk coated with commercial reforming catalyst. Operating temperature was in the range of $450\;-\;550^{\circ}C$ and the excess steam ratio to methane was from 3.0 to 5.0. At the steady-state condition, the conversion of methane Increased with temperature in the range of 15 % - 30 % and the experimentally determined conversion was found to be close to theoretical equilibrium conversion. It was also found that the CO selectivity slightly decreased with excess steam ratio. Finally, the conversion of methane decreased significantly with space velocity of reactants.