Modeling of an Autothermal Catalytic Monolith Reformer to Obtain Hydrogen for Fuel Cells

Interest in fuel cell as a clean power generation unit has increased recently. Hydrogen is the preferred fuel for fuel cells due to high reactivity for electrochemical reaction at anode. Effective methods of hydrogen generation are of high importance for commercialization of fuel cells for use in mobile applications. High storage pressure of hydrogen directed the researchers to develop fuel processors for distributed hydrogen generation. In this article, a numerical model based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was developed and validated to simulate the performance of a catalytic monolith reformer for hydrogen production. A single channel was modeled for methane autothermal reforming. CFD results provided an adequate match to experimental data from literature with respect to the reactor temperature profile and the mole fractions of H2, CO2, and CO at reactor outlet. The percentage difference between each experimental measurement of the mole fraction of hydrogen and the corresponding CFD prediction was less than 11%.

کلیدواژه ها:

Autothermal reforming ، Hydrogen ، monolith ، CFD model ، methane