Experimental study on the hydrogen production of integrated methanol-steam reforming reactors for PEM fuel cells

A 60 mm x 50 mm x 12 mm stainless steel compact reactor for hydrogen production from methanol-steam reforming (MSR) is presented. The proposed design was constructed by integrating vaporizer, reformer and combustor into a single unit. The energy required for the MSR is provided by heat generated from platinum (Pt)-catalytic methanol combustion in the combustor. CuO/ZnO/Al2O3 is used as the catalyst for the MSR. Three different reformer designs: patterned microchannel with catalyst coated onto the channel wall; single plain channel with catalyst coated onto the bottom channel wall, and inserted stainless mesh layer coated with catalyst, are experimentally tested to identify the flow and heat transfer effects on the reactor performance. The experimental results show that the methanol conversion using reformer with patterned microchannel is about 15% higher than that obtained using the reformer with inserted catalyst layer which has the lowest methanol conversion among the three reformers studied. The experimental results also show that the reactor with microchannel reformer has the best thermal efficiency among the three designs. This indicated that more effective heat and mass transfers provided by the microchannel can produce higher methanol conversion. Although the reformer with inserted catalyst layer exhibited performance lower than the reformer with patterned microchannel, it provides convenience in catalyst replacement when the catalyst is aged from the practical application point of view. (C) 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.