Abstract
Hydrogen production using current fueling facilities is essential for near-term applications of fuel cells. A preliminary process for developing a natural gas autothermal reforming (ATR) reactor for fuel cells is presented in this paper. A experimental reactor for methane ATR was constructed and used for characterization of ATR reactor. Temperature profiles of the reactor were observed, and reformed gas compositions were analyzed to evaluate efficiency, conversion and reaction heat with varying amounts of O₂/CH₄ at selected furnace temperature and H₂O/CH₄. The amount of O₂/CH₄ showed strong effects on reactor temperature, efficiency and conversion indicating that O₂/CH₄ is a crucial operation condition. Operation conditions which result in thermal neutrality of ATR reactor system were determined for two cases of an ATR system based on the estimation of enthalpy difference between reactants of assumed inlet temperatures and the products from experimental results. The determined conditions for thermally neutral operations could be used for guidelines to design reformers and for determining the operation parameters of a self-sustaining ATR reactor.
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