Design and study of the flow section of a variable microchannel reformer based on the coupling law of reforming with flow, heat and mass transfer

Abstract

In the amplification mode, microscale reforming reactions are controlled by the transfer rate. To avoid the amplification effect, the process coupling mechanism in the microchannel reactor must be studied to take full advantage of its precise control. This paper studies the coupling effect between the flow process and the reforming process in the microchannel and constructs a computational model of the flow coupling. A study was conducted on the influence of the coupling effect on the conversion rate, based on a combination of reliability verification and experiments. The following conclusions were obtained: the coupling effect in the reactive flow field was quantified based on the characteristic time of the flow process and the reaction process (Da number), and the microchannel was divided into three parts. The methanol conversion rate of the burst-expansion scheme was increased to more than 6%, and the USAER (unit surface area enhancement rate) reached 7.7. The USAER of the protrusion-expansion scheme can reach 8.342, with a potential for an 10% increase in conversion rate. The distribution of the three-segmented variable cross-section has the most effective regulation effect. The USAER of the protrusion-expansion scheme reaches 9.11, with a conversion rate that can be increased by 7%.