Computational Analysis of the Methane Steam Reforming Process With Low-Temperature Waste Heat Source

When the high temperature stationary fuel cell system is designed with external reformer, typical approach to improve efficiency of system is to employ catalytic burner with fuel lean anode-off gas for methane steam reformer. Recently, there have been many studies on the hybrid fuel cell system using anode-off gas to produce additional power. In those hybrid systems, maximum temperature of heat duty for the reformer is significantly reduced. Optimization of heat management is very important for these low temperature reformers. In this study, we carried out an analytic study of the methane steam reforming process with heat duty of non-reactive, low temperature gases. It is found out that the temperature uniformity of inlet gases is crucial for high efficiency. Additionally, the reformer geometry such as heat transfer area and the aspect ratio are meaningful parameters which can severely affect the methane conversion rate under given conditions.