Performance assessment of a spiral methanol to hydrogen fuel processor for fuel cell applications

A novel design of plate-type microchannel reactor has been developed for fuel cell-grade hydrogen production. Commercial Cu/Zn/Al2O3 was used as catalyst for the reforming reaction, and its effectiveness was evaluated on the mole fraction of products, methanol conversion, hydrogen yield and the amount of carbon monoxide under various operating conditions. Subsequently, 0.5 wt% Ru/Al2O3 as methanation catalyst was prepared by impregnation method and coupled with MSR step to evaluate the capability of methanol processor for CO reduction. Based on the experimental results, the optimum conditions were obtained as feed flow rate of 5 mL/h and temperature of 250°C, leading to a low CO selectivity and high H2 yield. The designed reformer with catalyst coated layer was compared with the conventional packed bed reformer at the same operating conditions. The constructed fuel processor had a good performance and excellent capability for on-board hydrogen production.