• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.04a
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• pp.55-60
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• 2009

The purpose of the research is to develop the high performance solar chemical reactor for producing hydrogen using steam reforming reaction of methane. A specific shape chemical reactor is suggested: spiral type reactor. The reactor is installed on the dish-type solar thermal system of Inha University. The temperatures, $CH_4$ conversion rates are measured. At specific condition, $CH_4$ conversion rates of the spiral type reactor are about 92%. The spiral type reactor gives reasonably good performance without any problems caused by highly concentrated solar radiation.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.40-48
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• 2010

The purpose of the research is to develop the high performance solar chemical reactor for producing hydrogen using steam reforming reaction of methane. A specific shape chemical reactor is suggested : spiral type reactor. The reactor is installed on the dish-type solar thermal system of Inha University. The temperatures, $CH_4$ conversion rates, and Hz proportion are measured. At specific condition, $CH_4$ conversion rates of the spiral type reactor are about 91%, and Hz proportion are about 66%. The spiral type reactor gives reasonably good performance without any problems caused by highly concentrated solar radiation.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.2221-2226
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• 2008

The objective of this paper is to describe the experimental and numerical investigation of the analysis of the heat transfer in a solar chemical reactor. These are compared about methane steam reforming process in the solar chemical reactor which was a volumetric absorber consisting of honeycomb and a multilayered catalyst supports. With this high operating temperature, convective heat loss, thermal fracture are important features for designing SCR. In order to estimate the system performance and to design the actual solar reactor with various conditions, CFD analysis was used in this study. The nickel oxide porous metal is inserted inside the solar chemical reactor to increase the conversion rate of the reforming reaction. Simulation has been carried out based on the experimental data. According to the simulation results, the optimum methane-steam mole ratio and thickness and numbers of catalyst supports were obtained.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.774-779
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• 2009

The purpose of this research is to develop the high performance of solar chemical reactor for producing hydrogen by methane reforming reaction with steam. Two shape of chemical reactor is suggested: first type is filled with porous material and second type is spiral type. These reactors is installed on the dish-type thermal system of Inha University, Inha Dish-1. Performance analysis of these two reactors is conducted from getting methane conversion.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.44-49
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• 2009

Steam reforming of methane in the high temperature solar chemical reactor bas advantage in its heating method. Using concentrated solar energy as a heating source of the reforming reaction can reduce the $CO_2$ emission by 20% compared to hydrocarbon fuel. In this paper, the simulation result of methane-steam reforming on a high temperature solar chemical reactor(SCR) using Fluent 6.3.26 is presented. The high temperature SCR is designed for the Inha Dish-1, a Dish type solar concentrator installed in Songdo city. Basic SCR performance factors are referred to the former researches of the same laboratory. Inside the SCR porous metal is used for a receiver/reactor. The porous metal is carved like a dome shape on the incident side to increase the heat transfer. Also, ring-disc set of baffle is inserted in the porous metal region to increase the path length. Numerical and physical models are also used from the former researches. Methane and steam is mixed with the same mole fraction and injected into the SCR. The simulation is performed for a various inlet mass flow rate of the methane-steam mixture gas. The result shows that the average reactor temperature and the conversion rate change appreciably by the inlet mass flow rate of 0.0005 kg/s.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.40-49
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• 2021

In this study, the optical properties, heat transfer capabilities and chemical reaction performance of a methane thermal decomposition reactor using solar heat as a heat source were numerically analyzed on the basis of the cavity shape. The optical properties were analyzed using TracePro, a Monte Carlo ray tracing-based program, and the heat transfer analysis was performed using Fluent, a CFD program. An indirect heating tubular reactor was rotated at a constant speed to prevent damage by the heat source in the solar furnace. The inside of the reactor was filled with a porous catalyst for methane decomposition, and the outside was insulated to reduce heat loss. The performance of the reactor, based on cavity shape, was calculated when solar heat was concentrated on the reactor surface and methane was supplied into the reactor in an environment with a solar irradiance of 700 W/㎡, a wind speed of 1 m/s, and an outdoor temperature of 25℃. Thus, it was confirmed that the heat loss of the full-cavity model decreased to 13% and the methane conversion rate increased by 33.5% when compared to the semi-cavity model.

• Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.2157-2163
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• 2018

Catalytic reactors have been essential for chemical engineering process, and different designs of reactors in multi-scales have been previously studied. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) utilized in reactor designs have been gaining interest due to its cost-effective advantage in designing the actual reactors before its construction. In this work, butadiene synthesis via oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of n-butene using tubular reactor was used as a case study in the CFD model. The effects of coolant and reactor diameter were investigated in assessing the reactor performance. Based on the results of the CFD model, the conversion and selectivity were 86.5% and 59.5% respectively in a fixed bed reactor under adiabatic condition. When coolants were used in a tubular reactor, reactor temperature profiles showed that solar salt had lower temperature gradients inside the reactor than the cooling water. Furthermore, higher conversion (90.9%) and selectivity (90.5%) were observed for solar salt as compared to the cooling water (88.4% for conversion and 86.3% for selectivity). Meanwhile, reducing the reactor diameter resulted in smaller temperature gradients with higher conversion and selectivity.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.294-299
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• 2008

Steam reforming of methane is the most wide spread method for hydrogen production. It has heed studied more than 60 years. methane reforming has advantages in technological maturity and economical production cost. Using a high-temperature solar thermal energy is an advanced technology in Steam reforming process. The synthesis gas, the product of the reforming process, can be applied directly for a combined cycle or separated for a hydrogen. In this paper, hydrogen conversion rate of a solar chemical reactor is calculated using commercial CFD program. 2 models are considered. Model-1 is original model which is designed from the former researches. And model-2 is ring-disk set of baffle is inserted to enhance the performance. The solar chemical reactor has 3 inlet nozzle at the bottom of the side wall near quartz glass and an exit is located at the top. Methane and steam is premixed with 50:50 mole fraction and goes into the inside. Passing through the porous media, the reactants are conversed into hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.580-583
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• 2006

A small-scale solar concentrating system was developed and demonstrated for supplying process heat required in solar thermo chemical reaction. The concentration system consists of a heliostat equipped with a solar tracking device and a dish concentrator. From the initial thermal test of the concentrating system it was found that the system works very well with around 500-600 concentration ratio capable of supplying about 3kW therml energy to the reactor. Once the concentration system was turned on, the reactor temperature rapidly increased over $1,000^{\circ}C$ and could be maintained high enough for solar chemical reaction.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.29-38
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• 2003

To develope chemical heat pump using available energy sources, solar heat and other kinds of waste thermal energy, we have studied the material and heat transfer rate in the cylindrical bed reactor packed with Calcined Dolomite. Our results from the studies are as follows ; 1 The time needed to complete dehydration reaction at the wall side of the cylindrical reactor(r/rL=0.5) was shorter than that of the center(r/rL=0.0) as much as 12%. 2. Two dimensional (radial and circumferential) partial differential equations, concerning heat and mass transfer rate in the packed bed of calcined Dolomite, are solved numerically to describe the characteristics of the reaction in the cylindrical reactor. The solution reads rate of reaction in the packed bed reactor depends on the temperature and concentration of reactants. These results read the supplied heat transfers from the wall side of the cylinder to the center, dehydration reaction begins at the inner side of the wall of the cylindrical reactor and the dehydration reaction proceeds from the wall side to center of cylinder.