Heat supply and hydrogen yield in an ethanol micro-reformer

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

INDUSTRIAL & ENGINEERING CHEMICAL RESEARCH

AMER CHEMICAL SOC

Lugar: Washington; 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 reportedin the present manuscript. Both co- and countercurrent configurations are considered for the streams of reactants and flue gasthrough microchannels of a square section. Two contiguous channels, assumed as representative of the whole reactor behavior, aresimulated using a 1D pseudohomogeneous model. The microreactor performance is analyzed for different heat-supply strategiesand channel sizes. The results demonstrate that the ESR in themicroreactor is strongly controlled by the heat supply. The hydrogenyield has amarked dependence on the total amount of heat transferred fromthe flue gas to the reformate and the axial distribution ofthe heat flow. The cocurrent-flow configuration proved to yield the higher performance. While smaller channels work better forcocurrent operation, an optimum compromise value is found for the channel size in countercurrent flow.