Performance evaluation and optimization of methanol steam reforming reactor with waste heat recovery for hydrogen production

Abstract

Using engine waste heat to reform methanol for hydrogen generation can effectively recover waste heat from exhaust gas and enhance fuel usage. In this paper, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and response surface methodology (RSM) are used in this paper to investigate the performance of a methanol reforming unit with waste heat recovery for hydrogen production. The impacts of different reactant and exhaust gas input characteristics on hydrogen generation performance were studied and optimized. These parameters include the exhaust gas inlet temperature and velocity, the reactant inlet temperature and velocity, and the steam-to-methanol ratio. The results indicated that the optimum inlet temperature of the reactants is 393 K, the velocity is 0.05 m/s, the steam to methanol ratio is 1.34, while the inlet temperature and velocity of the exhaust gas are 584.6 K and 1.35 m/s, respectively. A maximum methanol conversion of 83.73% and a minimum CO selectivity of 3.64E-6 can be obtained at this time.