Abstract
In a methanol-reforming system, because the mixture of methanol and water must be evaporated before reaching the reforming reaction zone, having an appropriate evaporator design is a fundamental requirement for completing the reforming reaction. This study investigates the effect of the evaporator design for the stable reforming of methanol–water mixtures. Four types of evaporator are compared at the same heat duty of the methanol-reforming system. The four evaporators are planar heat exchangers containing a microchannel structure, cylindrical shell-and-tube evaporators, zirconia balls for internal evaporation, and combinations of cylindrical shell-tubes and zirconia balls. The results show that the evaporator configuration is critical in performing stable reform reactions, especially for the flow-field mode of the evaporator. Additionally, the combination of both internal and external evaporation methods generates the highest performance for the methanol-reforming system, with the methanol conversion reaching almost 98%.
Highlights
Safety concerns regarding hydrogen storage have led to research into liquid fuel using reforming systems
Distinct designs for the evaporator of the 1 kW methanol-reforming system were developed, and the comparison and performance of individual configurations were evaluated at different input conditions
The flow-field mode was chosen for the system; the co-flow arrangement was more suitable for the methanol-reforming system than the counter-flow mode because of the insignificant difference in the evaporator outlet temperature
Summary
Safety concerns regarding hydrogen storage have led to research into liquid fuel using reforming systems. The evaporator uses the thermal energy of the combustor to vaporize the methanol/water mixture that is delivered to the reformer. Because the methanol/water mixture should be vaporized before the reforming zone, it is necessary to balance the thermal energy of each component in the system.
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