Concept and design of a novel compact reactor for autothermal steam reforming with integrated evaporation and CO cleanup

The design, development, and implementation of a novel autothermal reactor concept for decentral hydrogen generation by steam reforming of methanol was achieved by employing a systematic simultaneous design procedure. To overcome practical heat-transfer limitations, the reformer concept was designed following the operating principles of a plate heat exchanger. The design procedure considered numerical simulations and experimental verification, as well as simultaneous study of the mechanical stability of the reactor under realistic thermal and mechanical loads. The major optimization criteria for developing the reformer concept were maximum methanol conversion and minimum CO production. This design sequence allowed the development and final construction of a reformer prototype capable of producing hydrogen with an equivalent thermal output of 10 kW(th) that integrates feed evaporation/overheating, steam reforming, and the water-gas shift reaction in a single apparatus.