Simulation and experimental study on a methane steam reforming reactor heated by SOFC exhausted gas
A new kilowatt-class methane reforming hydrogen production reactor is designed,using solid oxide fuel cell exhaust gas for heat supply.The system can make full use of the waste heat and combustible components in the exhaust gas to form a compact and efficient natural gas power generation system.Computational fluid dynamics was used to numerically simulate the combustion and reforming reactions in the reactor.The results show that the solid oxide fuel cell anode and cathode exhaust gases can be stably burned in the reactor to form a high-temperature flame of 1 486 ℃ to provide heat for the methane steam reforming reaction.In the reaction tube,the concentrations of H2O and CH4 continue to decrease along the way.Due to excess water vapor,the H2O volume concentration at the outlet is 35%,the hydrogen concentration volume fraction is 45%,and the methane conversion rate reaches 90%.Nickel catalyst has a high thermal conductivity,so the temperature difference between the inside and outside of the reaction tube is less than 15 ℃.At the same time,experimental research was used to obtain data such as temperature,methane concentration and methane conversion rate in the reactor.The simulation results were compared to verify the accuracy of the numerical simulation.