Development of methanol steam reformer for chemical recuperation

The purpose of the present work is to establish the design method of methanol steam-reformer for application to chemical recuperation in a gas turbine system. The reaction rate of the methanol steam-reforming was measured with a small amount of catalyst using the gaseous mixture of methanol, water, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide as a simulated product gas. The reaction rate equation could be expressed by power law of methanol mole fraction and total pressure. The reaction and heat transfer in the catalyst-packed bed was analyzed numerically using the reaction rate equation. The analytical results of temperature distribution and conversion were compared with the experimental results using a reforming tube. These results agreed well except for the region of high methanol conversion.