Reforming Integrated with Oxidation in Micro-Heat Exchanger Reactor with Circular Micro-Channels

In this work, steam reforming integrated with oxidation of methanol has been considered with numerical simulation. Steam reforming is an endothermic reaction; hence, much heat was needed. To supply this heat, oxidation reaction, which is an exothermic reaction, was used. When the catalyst was deposited inside the rectangular micro-channels, it filled up the edges. Hence, the approximation of cylindrical channels is appropriate for these parallel micro-channels. Effect of this changing in the cross section was considered and the results show that methanol conversion is lower in the circular model. Also, effects of operating conditions were considered. The results show that with increasing inlet temperature, methanol conversion increases, while with increasing feed flow rate, it decreases. The effect of the distance between oxidation and steam reforming micro-channels was considered and the results show that with increasing this parameters, methanol conversion decreases. The distance between the two oxidation micro-channels was considered as geometry parameters as well. The results show that with increasing these parameters, methanol conversion increases.