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Thermal analysis of cylindrical natural-gas steam reformer for 5 kW PEMFC

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Abstract

The thermal characteristics of a natural-gas based cylindrical steam reformer coupled with a combustor are investigated for the use with a 5 kW polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell. A reactor unit equipped with nickel-based catalysts was designed to activate the steam reforming reaction without the inclusion of high-temperature shift and low-temperature shift processes. Reactor temperature distribution and its overall thermal efficiency depend on various inlet conditions such as the equivalence ratio, the steam to carbon ratio (SCR), and the fuel distribution ratio (FDR) into the reactor and the combustor components. These experiments attempted to analyze the reformer’s thermal and chemical properties through quantitative evaluation of product composition and heat exchange between the combustor and the reactor. FDR is critical factor in determining the overall performance as unbalanced fuel injection into the reactor and the combustor deteriorates overall thermal efficiency. Local temperature distribution also influences greatly on the fuel conversion rate and thermal efficiency. For the experiments, the operation conditions were set as SCR was in range of 2.5–4.0 and FDR was in 0.4–0.7 along with equivalence ratio of 0.9–1.1; optimum results were observed for FDR of 0.63 and SCR of 3.0 in the cylindrical steam reformer.

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Abbreviations

PEMFC :

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell

SR :

Steam reforming

HTS :

High temperature shift

LTS :

Low temperature shift

SCR :

Steam to carbon ratio

A/F :

Air–fuel ratio

Fi :

Molar flow rate of species i

LHVi :

Low heating value of species i

ni :

Mole of species i

η :

Thermal efficiency

Ф :

Equivalence ratio

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the New and Renewable Energy of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) grant funded by the Korea government Ministry of Knowledge Economy (Grant No. 20133010031751).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Design Engineering, Hanyang University, 222, Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, 04763, Republic of Korea

    Taehyun Jo

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hanyang University, 222, Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, 04763, Republic of Korea

    Junhee Han & Bonchan Koo

  3. Department of Mechanical Design Engineering, Hanyang University, 55, Hanyangdaehak-ro, Sangnok-gu, Ansan, Kyeonggi-do, 15588, Republic of Korea

    Dohyung Lee

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  1. Taehyun Jo
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  2. Junhee Han
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Correspondence to Dohyung Lee.

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Jo, T., Han, J., Koo, B. et al. Thermal analysis of cylindrical natural-gas steam reformer for 5 kW PEMFC. Heat Mass Transfer 52, 2459–2469 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-016-1757-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-016-1757-x

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