Coupling exothermic and endothermic reactions in an ethanol microreformer for H2 production

Y. BRUSCHI; E. LÓPEZ; M. PEDERNERA; D. BORIO

Acapulco

Congreso; IMCCRE2014 - INTERNATIONAL MEXICAN CONGRESS ON CHEMICAL REACTION ENGINEERING; 2014

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Bioethanol is an attractive raw material for the production of hydrogen or syngas, because of its high energy density and low toxicity and volatility. In the last years, some attention has been paid to processes for the production of H2 or synthesis gas from bioethanol by means of catalytic steam reforming. Microreactors provide a high surface to volume ratio and high heat and mass transfer coefficients, which makes them appropriate for processes requiring high heat-fluxes per unit area. Because of the small geometry and the high heat conductivity of the materials, lab-scale microreactors can be electrically heated and isothermal conditions can usually be assumed. However, under higher production-scale conditions, the heat supply should be provided through other sources, e.g., convective heating using flue gas coming from an external combustion chamber or catalytic combustion in contiguous microchannels. This last option is adopted in the present work to analyze the behaviour of a microreactor operated under co-current flow.