Optimization of autothermal reforming of ultrasonic methanol sprays over Cu/ZnO catalyst for hydrogen production via a statistical approach

Abstract

Autothermal reforming (ATR) is a highly efficient process for hydrogen production. This study uses the Taguchi method to optimize the hydrogen production from methanol via the ATR process. The Cu/ZnO particle is used as the catalyst, and an ultrasonic spray system is used to generate aqueous methanol sprays for ATR. A Taguchi L9 orthogonal array is used to assess the effects of preheating temperature, oxygen/carbon (O2/C) ratio, steam/carbon (S/C) ratio, and gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) on H2 yield. The results show that the O2/C ratio has the most significant influence on the objective function, H2 yield, followed by preheating temperature, S/C ratio, and GHSV, with the most negligible impact. The optimal conditions for maximizing the H2 yield from signal/noise ratio analysis are a preheating temperature of 350 °C, an O2/C ratio of 0.65, an S/C ratio of 1.5, and a GHSV of 7000 h−1. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicates that the model has a good fit with a high R2 value (=0.9735). The contribution to H2 yield is 40.22 % by the O2/C ratio, 37.80 % by the preheating temperature,19.34 % by the S/C ratio, and 2.54 % by the GHSV. The H2 yields from ATR, steam reforming, and partial oxidation are also compared. The results indicate that ATR is the optimal choice for producing hydrogen from methanol while maintaining the proper reaction temperature range without generating extra energy.