Structured catalytic substrates with radial configurations for the intensification of the WGS stage in H2 production

Weight and size reduction of fuel processing reactors is one of the key issues in the development of catalytic H2 production and purification systems for distributed power plants. The search for innovative solutions is focused on the development of both catalyst formulations and geometries which could help to achieve an effective process intensification. Precious metals based structured catalysts in form of monolith or foam prepared from ceramic or metallic substrates could be a viable option to overcome heat transfer limitations, which typically characterize these systems. They allow high efficiency of fuel conversion even at high GHSV, and better stability and durability, a critical issue for industrial WGS catalysts. In this work we report on the development of an integrated kW-scale system, CH4 fuelled, for H2 production arranged with an autothermal reforming (ATR) and a WGS stage. Both reactors operated with noble metals based structured catalysts. Since in an adiabatic WGS reactor the reaction rates are not optimized throughout the reactor we employ noble metals foam structured catalysts assembled in such a way to perform inside the reactor axial or radial gas flow geometry. The aim of the work is to verify the influence of flow geometry on the reformer performance.