Numerical study of methanol–steam reforming and methanol–air catalytic combustion in annulus reactors for hydrogen production

This study presents the numerical simulation on the performance of mini-scale reactors for hydrogen production coupled with liquid methanol/water vaporizer, methanol/steam reformer, and methanol/air catalytic combustor. These reactors are designed similar to tube-and-shell heat exchangers. The combustor for heat supply is arranged as the tube or shell side. Based on the obtained results, the methanol/air flow rate through the combustor (in terms of gas hourly space velocity of combustor, GHSV-C) and the methanol/water feed rate to the reformer (in terms of gas hourly space velocity of reformer, GHSV-R) control the reactor performance. With higher GHSV-C and lower GHSV-R, higher methanol conversion can be achieved because of higher reaction temperature. However, hydrogen yield is reduced and the carbon monoxide concentration is increased due to the reversed water gas shift reaction. Optimum reactor performance is found using the balance between GHSV-C and GHSV-R. Because of more effective heat transfer characteristics in the vaporizer, it is found that the reactor with combustor arranged as the shell side has better performance compared with the reactor design having the combustor as the tube side under the same operating conditions.