Heat supply and hydrogen yield in an ethanol micro-reformer

A. ANZOLA; Y. M. BRUSCHI; E. LÓPEZ; N.S. SCHBIB; M. N. PEDERNERA; D.O. BORIO

INDUSTRIAL & ENGINEERING CHEMICAL RESEARCH

AMER CHEMICAL SOC

Año: 2011 vol. 50 p. 2698 - 2705

0888-5885

A simulation study of a microreactor for steam reforming of ethanol (ESR) over a washcoated Pd catalyst is reported in the present manuscript. Both co- and countercurrent configurations are considered for the streams of reactants and flue gas through microchannels of a square section. Two contiguous channels, assumed as representative of the whole reactor behavior, are simulated using a 1D pseudohomogeneous model. The microreactor performance is analyzed for different heat-supply strategies and channel sizes. The results demonstrate that the ESR in the microreactor is strongly controlled by the heat supply. The hydrogen yield has a marked dependence on the total amount of heat transferred from the flue gas to the reformate and the axial distribution of the heat flow. The cocurrent-flow configuration proved to yield the higher performance. While smaller channels work better for cocurrent operation, an optimum compromise value is found for the channel size in countercurrent flow.