• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.40 no.11
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• pp.745-753
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• 2016

Micro methanol-steam reformer for fuel cell can effectively produce hydrogen as reforming response to steam takes place in low temperature (less than $250^{\circ}C$). This study conducted numerical research on this reformer. First, study set wall temperature of the reformer at 100, 140, 180 and $220^{\circ}C$ while methanol conversion efficiency was set in 0, 0.072, 3.83 and 46.51% respectively. Then, porosity of catalyst was set in 0.1, 0.35, 0.6 and 0.85 and although there was no significant difference in methanol conversion efficiency, values of pressure drop were 4645.97, 59.50, 5.12 and 0.45 kPa respectively. This study verified that methanol-steam reformer rarely responds under the temperature of $180^{\circ}C$ and porosity does not have much effect on methanol conversion efficiency if the fluid flowing through reformer lowers activation energy by sufficiently contacting reformer.

• 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 hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.403-408
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• 2006

The plate reformer consisting of combustion chamber and reforming chamber for 25 kW MCFC stack has been operated and computational fluid dynamics was applied to estimate reactions and thermal fluid behavior in the reformer. The methane air 2-stage reaction was assumed in the combustion chamber, and three step steam reforming reactions were included in the calculation. Flow uniformity, reaction rate and species distribution, and temperature distribution were analyzed. In particular, temperature distribution was compared with the measurements to show good agreement in the combustion chamber, however, inappropriate agreement in the reformer chamber.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.286-294
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• 2010

According to the propagation of fuel cell system, the importance of that system efficiency is being magnified. Thus, the efficiency improvement of reformer which is the important part of fuel cell system will be required. In structural aspect, the reformer is classified into cylindrical and plate type. Plate type reformer features better maintenance and space efficiency compared with cylindrical type. In this study, we changed the shape of combustion chamber to improve the reforming efficiency. And then we performed the CFD simulation to predict the spacial distribution of temperature. Analysis cased contains with baffles, fins, baffles and fins, and without those. In case of only with-baffle, temperature distributions were uneven because the high temperature stream was concentrated near the baffle end. In case of with-fin, the temperature distributions were relatively even than other cases.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.25-28
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• 2008

Steam reforming reaction is a matured technology to get hydrogen from hydrocarbon fuels compared with other reforming reactions such as partial oxidation(POX), autothermal reforming(ATR). It is so endothermic that it needs heat source to activate the reaction. Due to the reaction characteristics, heat transfer limitation phenomena generally occur in the steam reformer. As one of new ideas, the effect of discontinuous gas feeding is investigated based on heat transfer characteristics. The new operating method is usually favorable at high GHSV region(i.e. over $10,000h^{-1}$). In order to numerically simulate the physical issues, numerical approach is adopted based on heterogeneous reaction model, two-equation model in energy equation, and other constitutive models in porous media.

• 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.

• 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.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.50-57
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• 2005

The aim of this study is to numerically investigate a compact reformer system currently under development and to design a better reforming system with more efficient heat transfer and reforming reactions. Numerical models were established separately for both the combustion part and the reforming reaction part. A comparison between the calculation results and experimental data showed that the concentration of the reformate at the exit of the reforming system was in good agreement with the measured data, but for the temperature at the exit little difference between them was found. After checking the validity of the numerical models, the heat transfer between the combustion gas and reforming catalysts was estimated and the behavior of the catalyst bed was investigated as a function of the operation parameters.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.122-130
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• 2005

Gasification of carbonaceous wastes such as shredded tire, waste lubricating oil, plastics, and powdered coal initiates a single-stage reforming reactor(reformer) Without catalyst and a syngas burner. Syngas is combusted with $O_2$ gas in the syngas burner to produce $H_2O\;{and}\;CO_2$ gas with exothermic heat. Reaction products are introduced into the reforming reactor, reaction heat from syngas burner elevates the temperature of reactor above $1,200^{\circ}C$, and hydrogen gas fraction reaches 65% of the product gas output. Reactants and heat necessary for the reaction are provided through the syngas burner only. Neither $O_2$ gas nor steam is injected into the reforming reactor. Multiple syngas burners may be connected to the reforming reactor in order to increase the syngas output, and the product syngas is recycled into syngas burner.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.40 no.12
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• pp.793-799
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• 2016

In a hybrid fuel cell system, low-temperature reforming technology, which uses waste heat as a heat source, is applied to improve system efficiency. A low temperature reformer is required to optimize geometry in low thermal conditions so that the reformer can achieve the proper methane conversion rate. This study analyzed internal temperature distributions and the reaction patterns of a reformer by considering the change of the shape factor on the limited heat supply condition. Unlike the case of a high temperature reformer, analysis showed that the reaction of a low temperature reformer takes place primarily in the high temperature region of the reactor exit. In addition, it was confirmed that the efficiency can be improved by reducing the GHSV (gas hourly space velocity) or increasing the heat transfer area in the radial direction. Through reacting characteristic analysis, according to change of the aspect ratio, it was confirmed that a low temperature reformer can improve the efficiency by increasing the heat transfer in the radial direction, rather than in the longitudinal direction.