• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.425-430
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• 2012

In this study, a preconverter of an MCFC for an emergency electric power supplier is numerically simulated to increase the hydrogen production from natural gas (methane). A commercial code is used to simulate a porous catalyst with a user subroutine to model three dominant chemical reactions-steam reforming, water-gas shift, and direct steam reforming. To achieve a fuel conversion rate of 10% in the preconverter, the required external heat flux is supplied from the outer wall of the preconverter. The calculated results show that the temperature distribution and chemical reaction are extremely nonuniform near the wall of the preconverter. These phenomena can be explained by the low heat conductivity of the porous catalyst and the endothermic reforming reaction. The calculated results indicate that the use of a compact-size preconverter makes the chemical reaction more uniform and provides many advantages for catalyst maintenance.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.82-88
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• 2020

Recently, a fuel reforming plant for supplying high purity hydrogen has been studied to increase the operation time of underwater weapon systems. Since steam reforming is an endothermic reaction, it is necessary to continuously supply heat to the reactor. A fuel reforming plant needs a methanol-O₂ catalytic burner to obtain heat and supply heat to the reformer. In this study, two types of designs of a catalytic burner are presented and the results are analyzed through the experiments. The design of the catalytic burner is divided into that the O₂ supply direction is perpendicular to the methanol flow direction (Design 1) and the same as the methanol flow direction (Design 2). In case of Design 1, backfire and flame combustion occurred in the mixing space in front of the catalyst, and in the absence of the mixing space, combustion reaction occurred only in a part of the catalyst. For above reasons, Design 1 could not increase the exhaust gas temperature to 750℃. In Design 2, no flashback and flame combustion were observed, the exhaust gas could be maintained up to 750℃. However, the O₂ distributor was exposed to high temperatures, resulting in thermal damage.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.274-282
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• 2004

This study focused on the development of high performance catalyst for autothermal reforming (ATR) of gasoline to produce hydrogen. The ATR was carried out over MgO/Al2O3 supported metal catalysts prepared under various experimental conditions. The catalysts before and after reaction were characterized by N2-physisorption, CO-chemisorption, SEM and XRD. The performance of supported multi-metal catalysts were better than that of supported mono-metal catalysts. Especially, it was observed that the conversion of iso-octane over prepared Ni/Fe/MgO/Al2O3 catalyst was 99.9 % comparable with commercial catalyst (ICI) and the selectivity of hydrogen over the prepared catalyst was 65% higher than ICI catalyst. Furthermore, it was identified that the sulfur tolerance of prepared catalyst was much better than ICI catalyst based on the ATR reaction of iso-octane containing sulfur of 100 ppm. Therefore, Ni/Fe/MgO/Al2O3 catalyst can be applied for a fuel reformer, hydrogen station and on-board reformer in furl cell powered vehicles.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.372-379
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• 2020

Ammonia-hydrogen dual-fuel engine is a way to reduce greenhouse gas emission because ammonia and hydrogen are carbon-free fuels. In ammonia-hydrogen dual-fuel engine, hydrogen is supplied to improve the combustion characteristic of ammonia. In this study, an ammonia reformer was developed to supply hydrogen for 10 kW class ammonia-hydrogen dual-fuel engine. Thermodynamic characteristic and catalyst were investigated for ammonia reforming. Heat transfer was important for high ammonia conversion of ammonia reformer. 99% of ammonia conversion was obtained when 10 LPM of ammonia and 610℃ of hot gas were supplied to the ammonia reformer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.615-616
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• 2006

A micro-fuel processor system integrating steam reformer and partial oxidation reactor was manufactured using low temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC). A CuO/ZnO/$Al_2O_3$ catalyst and Pt-based catalyst prepared by wet impregnation were used for steam reforming and partial oxidation, respectively. The performance of the LTCC micro-fuel processor was measured at various operating conditions such as the effect of the feed flow rate, the ratio of $H_2O/CH_3OH$, and the operating temperature on the LTCC reformer and CO clean-up system. The catalyst layer was loaded with "Fill and Dry" coating for small volume. The product gas was composed of $70\sim75%$ hydrogen, $20\sim25%$ carbon dioxide, and $1\sim2%$ carbon monoxide at $250\sim300^{\circ}C$, respectively.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.364-374
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• 2010

Design of a reformer consisting of combustion chamber and reforming chamber was investigated for a 1 kW and a 5 kW polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), respectively, using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD). First, the 1kW reformer was considered to obtain the reliability of the numerical study. It was modeled, calculated and compared with experimental data. Second, the 5kW reformer was considered for a geometric study. Three tip sizes (35, 40, and 45 mm) and five aspect ratios was selected. It was found that the optimum was at tip sizes of 40 and 45 mm, at aspect ratios of -10% and -20% of the standard length.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.12-25
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• 2007

Numerical simulation of the natural gas steam reforming process for on-site hydrogen production in a $H_2$ fueling station was conducted on the basis of process material and heat balances. The effects of reforming parameters on the process efficiency of hydrogen production were investigated, and set-point values of each of the parameters to minimize the sizes of unit process equipments and to secure a stable operability of the reforming process were suggested. S/C ratio of the reforming reactants was found to be a crucial parameter in the reforming process mostly governing both the hydrogen production efficiency and the stable operability of the process. The operation of the process was regarded to be stable if the feed water(WR) as a reforming reactant could evaporate completely to dry steam through HRSG. The optimum S/C ratio was 3.0 where the process efficiency of hydrogen production was maximized and the stable operability of the process was secured. The optimum feed rates of natural gas(NGR) and WR as reforming reactants and natural gas(NGB) as a burner fuel were also determined for the hydrogen production rate of $27\;Nm^3/h$.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.571-580
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• 2016

In this paper, performance of the gas turbine combined cycle(GTCC) using pre-combustion carbon capture technology was comparatively analysed. Steam reforming and autothermal reforming were used. In the latter, two different methods were adopted to supply oxygen for the reforming process. One is to extract air form gas turbine compressor (air blowing) and the other is to supply oxygen directly from air separation unit ($O_2$ blowing). To separate $CO_2$ from the reformed gas, the chemical absorption system using MEA solution was used. The net cycle efficiency of the system adopting $O_2$ blown autothermal reforming was higher than the other two systems. The system using air blown autothermal reforming exhibited the largest net cycle power output. In addition to the performance analysis, the influence of fuel reforming and carbon capture on the operating condition of the gas turbine and the necessity of turbine re-design were investigated.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.507-510
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• 2008

Characteristics of an autothermal reformer at various operating parameters have been studied in this paper. Numerical method has been used, and simulation model has been developed for the analysis. Full Combustion reaction, Steam Reforming(SR) reaction, Water-Gas Shift(WGS) reaction, and Direct Steam Reforming(DSR) reaction are assumed as dominant chemical reactions in the autothermal reformer. Simulation results are compared with experimental results for code validation. Operating parameters of the autothermal reformer are inlet temperature, Oxygen to Carbon Ratio(OCR), Steam to Carbon Ratio(SCR), and Gas Hourly Space Veolcity(GHSV). SR reaction rate decreases with low inlet temperature. If OCR is increased, $H_2$ yield is increased but optimal point is suggested. WGS reaction is activated with high SCR. When GHSV is increased, reforming efficiency is increased but pressure drop may decrease the system efficiency.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.63-66
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• 2007

Reformers which produce hydrogen from natural gas are essential for the operation of residential PEM fuel cells. For this purpose, steam-methane reforming reactions with Ni catalysts is primarily utilized. Commercial Ni catalysts are generally made to have porous pellet shapes in which Ni catalyst particles are uniformly dispersed over Alumina support structures. This study numerically investigates the reduction of catalyst effectiveness due to the mass transport resistances posed by porous structures of spherical catalyst pellets. The multi-component diffusion through porous media and the accurate kinetics of reforming reaction is fully considered in the numerical model. The preliminary results on the variation of the effectiveness factor according to different operation conditions are presented, which is planned to be used to develop correlations in future studies.