Simulation of a Methanol Steam Reforming Microreactor and Proposing a Method for Reactor Compacting

The methanol steam reforming in a microreactor is simulated using Purnama’s reactions kinetic model. The simulation results were validated against published experimental data in terms of methanol conversion and product composition. A new concept for making the microreactor package more compact is evaluated by simulation. This idea consists of thermal and mass integration of the process, i.e., the required heat of methanol vaporization and methanol steam reforming be supplied by the heat of catalytic heat of combustion of a portion of methanol in an adjacent micro reactor to the reforming section of the package. The simulation results showed that by using this method, it is possible to obtain a product with a hydrogen purity of more than 60% and CO content of less than 2%. The effects of reactor temperature and residence time on the performance of the presented package was investigated and it was shown that the methanol conversion increases with increasing each of these parameters. Also, it was shown that adding small amount of water to the methanol feed stock leads to significant reduction in CO content of the product.