Kinetic studies of methanol steam reforming over Pd/ZnO catalyst using a microchannel reactor Original Research Article

A microchannel reactor with effective heat exchange has been developed to evaluate catalyst performance and measure reaction kinetics. The reactor provides an isothermal environment for rate measurement of the endothermic methanol steam reforming reactions over a Pd/ZnO catalyst in a wide temperature range (160–310 °C). The apparent activation energy and rate equation have been determined to fit the power law expression:−rA(mmol/kgcat /s)=2.9047×1010 e−94 800/RTpMeOH0.715pH2O0.088This result provides kinetic data for the design of a miniature fuel processor for small fuel cell applications. The rate equation has been applied to a three-dimensional pseudo-homogeneous model to simulate temperature profiles in both microchannel and conventional fixed bed reactors.