Experimental investigation of Methane Partial Oxidation for Hydrogen Production

The thermal partial oxidation process of methane was investigated experimentally. Compared with the other reforming technologies partial oxidation process has several advantageous. There is no need for external heat sources and additional feeds like water as in steam reforming. Moreover, the process is catalyst free and thus catalyst deactivation problems are completely out of consideration. Thermodynamic calculations and kinetic simulation were performed to determine the practical operating conditions. Experimentally, a porous material-based reactor was built to perform the partial oxidation process. Al2O3 granular with different size selected as porous structures and installed in the reaction zone. Physical parameters include diameter of the rector is considered for other experimental test. As the result the temperature profiles along the reactor central axis and concentration profiles of CO and H2 were measured. Also the effects of equivalence air ratio on the reforming process were investigated. Different equivalence air ratio 1.5 and 2 was considered to perform the partial oxidation process.