Evaluation of combined absorption heat pump–methanol steam reforming system: Feasibility criterion as a measure of system performance

This paper presents an evaluation of combined absorption heat pump (AHP) and methanol steam reforming (MSR) system. To measure the effectiveness of this combined system, a feasibility criterion was proposed, which measured the ratio between net energy gain obtained by MSR reaction over energy required by AHP system. By using the proposed feasibility criterion, optimum AHP step number could be determined. Other parameters pertaining to both AHP and MSR system were also determined and calculated. In particular, discussions would focus on the effects of steam–carbon molar ratio (S/C) and gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) of experimental MSR upon feasibility criterion of combined system. It was shown that the decrease of GHSV caused the increase of feasibility criterion up to the AHP step number 3; meanwhile, the increase of S/C resulted in the shifting of feasibility criterion peak from AHP step number 3 to 2.