INVESTIGADORES
LOPEZ Eduardo
artículos
Título:
A million-channel reformer on a fingertip: moving down the scale in hydrogen production
Autor/es:
EDUARDO LOPEZ; AITOR IRIGOYEN; TRIFON TRIFONOV; ANGEL RODRIGUEZ; JORDI LLORCA
Revista:
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY
Editorial:
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
Referencias:
Año: 2010 vol. 35 p. 3472 - 3479
ISSN:
0360-3199
Resumen:
The present contribution reports the design, manufacture and
experimental proof of concept of an ethanol micro-reformer for portable
fuel-cell feeding. Through photo-assisted electrochemical etching, a silicon micromonolithic
substrate with perfectly parallel cylindrical channels of 3.3 mm diameter was achieved (density of
channels of ca. 4x104 channels mm-2). The channel walls
were coated with a cobalt-based catalyst. The resultant functionalized
micromonoliths were implemented in a stainless-steel microreactor including
feed evaporation facilities and electrical heating. The unit was successfully
tested for ethanol steam reforming under non-diluted feed conditions at 773K, achieving
high hydrogen specific production rates, high ethanol conversions (>80%) and adequate selectivity profiles, with
H2:CO2 molar ratios of ~3 and low CO outlet
concentrations. A performance comparison was performed with two other reforming
substrates with the same catalyst formulation, namely, a conventional
cordierite monolith and a conventional stainless-steel microreactor. Results
show for the Si-micromonolithic reactor a remarkable improvement of the
specific hydrogen production rate (per unit reactor volume and feed flowrate), operating
at considerably reduced residence times, due to the increase in contact area
per unit volume.