Hydrogen production by thermal partial oxidation of hydrocarbon fuels in porous media based reformer

The thermal partial oxidation process of methane was investigated numerically and experimentally. Thermodynamic calculations and kinetic simulation were performed using CHEMKIN tools to determine the practical operating conditions. Experimentally, a porous material-based reactor was built to perform the partial oxidation process. Temperature profiles along the reactor central axis and concentration profiles of CO, H2, CO2, C2H2 and CH4 were measured. Two different porous structures were installed in the reaction zone: Al2O3 fiber static mixer structures and SiC foams. The effects of air preheating temperature, thermal load and air ratio on the reforming process were investigated for both structures. The numerical calculation showed that an air ratio down to 0.4 is a practical limit to perform the partial oxidation process. Experimentally, it was found that the air preheating temperature has no significant influence on the syngas composition; however, it does affect the soot point (λc). Higher heat recuperation was detected in the case of SiC foam based reformer than in the case of the Al2O3 mixer one. The SiC foam based reactor showed also a better performance than the Al2O3 regarding the soot point. For air preheating temperature of 700 °C, the current soot point for the SiC foam based reformer was 0.42, while it was 0.45 for the Al2O3 mixer one.