Abstract
Hot spot formation is inevitable in a heat exchanger microchannel reactor used for steam reforming of methane because of the local imbalance between the generated and absorbed heat. A stripe configuration of the combustion catalyst layer was suggested to make the catalytic combustion rate uniform in order to minimize the hot spot near the inlet. The stripe configuration was optimized by response surface methodology with computational fluid dynamics. With the optimal catalyst layer, the hot spot was not observed near the inlet and the maximum temperature decreased by 130 K from that of the uniform catalyst layer without any conversion loss. The maximum relative particle diameters of the uniform and the optimal stripe catalyst layer were about 3.68 and 2.51, respectively, and the surface-averaged particle diameter of the optimal stripe catalyst layer was 7.64% less than that of the uniform stripe catalyst layer.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 13982-13990 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | International Journal of Hydrogen Energy |
Volume | 38 |
Issue number | 32 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2013 Oct 25 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by Business for Academic-industrial Cooperative establishments funded Korea Small and Medium Business Administration in 2012 (Grants No. C0019714 ) and the Human Resources Development program (No. 20124010203250) of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) grant funded by the Korea government Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy .
Keywords
- Catalytic surface area
- Heat exchanger reactor
- Hot spot
- Microchannel
- Response surface methodology
- Steam reforming of methane
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
- Fuel Technology
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Energy Engineering and Power Technology