Zhang Shubin, Zhang Yufeng, Chen Junyu, Zhang Xuelin, Liu Xiaowei
MEMS Center, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China.
Key Laboratory of Micro-Systems and Micro-structures Manufacturing, Ministry of Education, Harbin, China.
PLoS One. 2017 Nov 9;12(11):e0187802. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0187802. eCollection 2017.
This paper presents a numerical and experimental study on the performance of a methanol steam reformer integrated with a hydrogen/air combustion reactor for hydrogen production. A CFD-based 3D model with mass and momentum transport and temperature characteristics is established. The simulation results show that better performance is achieved in the cross-U type reactor compared to either a tubular reactor or a parallel-U type reactor because of more effective heat transfer characteristics. Furthermore, Cu-based micro reformers of both cross-U and parallel-U type reactors are designed, fabricated and tested for experimental validation. Under the same condition for reforming and combustion, the results demonstrate that higher methanol conversion is achievable in cross-U type reactor. However, it is also found in cross-U type reactor that methanol reforming selectivity is the lowest due to the decreased water gas shift reaction under high temperature, thereby carbon monoxide concentration is increased. Furthermore, the reformed gas generated from the reactors is fed into a high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). In the test of discharging for 4 h, the fuel cell fed by cross-U type reactor exhibits the most stable performance.
本文对集成了氢气/空气燃烧反应器用于制氢的甲醇蒸汽重整器的性能进行了数值和实验研究。建立了一个基于计算流体力学（CFD）的三维模型，该模型考虑了质量、动量传输以及温度特性。模拟结果表明，与管式反应器或平行U型反应器相比，交叉U型反应器具有更有效的传热特性，因而性能更佳。此外，设计、制造并测试了交叉U型和平行U型反应器的铜基微重整器，以进行实验验证。在相同的重整和燃烧条件下，结果表明交叉U型反应器能够实现更高的甲醇转化率。然而，在交叉U型反应器中还发现，由于高温下水煤气变换反应减少，甲醇重整选择性最低，从而导致一氧化碳浓度增加。此外，将反应器产生的重整气送入高温质子交换膜燃料电池（PEMFC）。在4小时的放电测试中，由交叉U型反应器供气的燃料电池表现出最稳定的性能。
