Thermodynamic Process Model Development of Selected Platinum-Group Metal Catalyst Based Steam Methane Reformer for Hydrogen Production

Reforming of hydrocarbon fuel is one of most common methods for hydrogen production and possesses a great importance in the energy industry including fuel cell system applications. Main endothermic reactions of methane reforming is steam methane reforming. Palladium-Rhodium-based and Ruthenium-based catalyst metal foams are being studied for production of hydrogen through steam methane reforming in a single-unit operation reactor. The effects of steam to methane molar feed ratio (S/M), temperature on methane conversion, H2–selectivity and thermal requirement were considered for the SMR reactor. Simulations were run using Aspen Plus. The reactor was modeled using Equilibrium and Gibbs packages to study the reactor performance. Experimental results compare the different catalysts for different S/M ratio and temperatures. H2-selectivity was insensitive to S/M ratio. As the S/M is increases the Methane conversion increases e.g. 95% conversion is achieved as the ratio is increased to 5.0. The temperature has a strong effect on methane conversion. Highest conversion is achieved above 800 C. However, the effect of pressure is not found significant which agrees with the nature of the reaction. The trends observed in this experimental SMR reactor were in good agreement with simulation model developed in this study. This work will be useful for operational optimization of such a reactor in various applications including fuel cell systems.