Temperature and Concentration Simulations in the Methanol Steam Reformer

The methanol steam reforming plays an important role for hydrogen supply to the proton membrane exchange fuel cell in the portable power applications. The catalyst coating on the walls of channels is often used in the fabrication of the reactors in the reformer to minimize the pressure loss. In this study, the temperature and concentration fields in the reactors for the methanol steam reforming were investigated numerically. The methanol conversion is usually used to evaluate the performance of the reformer. The effects of the inlet gas temperature in the heat supply channel and inlet velocity in the reforming channel on the performance of the methanol steam reforming are presented.