Reaction Characteristics of Methanol Noncatalytic Partial Oxidation Stabilized by Ceramic Honeycomb

Abstract

A ceramic honeycomb was employed in a 1-kW class compact tubular fuel reformer based on noncatalytic partial oxidation (POX) of methanol. POX was stabilized on the outlet surface of the ceramic honeycomb under various experimental conditions with different equivalence ratios (φ) and thermal loads (q_load); the latter represents the thermal input to the reformer calculated from the lower heating value (LHV) of methanol. The best performance of the reformer was achieved at φ = 3.5, and the adiabatic flame temperature was achieved. The location where the reaction occurred was determined, and the reaction was found to stabilize at an almost identical location under a wide range of thermal load conditions. This robust feature of the reaction is a significant characteristic of the ceramic honeycomb. By inserting a secondary honeycomb downstream of the reaction region, it was possible to move the reaction region upstream. This shifting of the reaction region was a result of the energy regeneration attributed to the adiabatic features of the honeycomb, and resulted in an improvement in reformer performance.

Keywords:

• Fuel reformer
• Heat regeneration
• Methanol
• Noncatalytic partial oxidation

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors express their gratitude to Kyocera Corporation, Toyota Central R&D Labs, Inc., and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation for the supply of some experimental device parts.

Notes

*q _load is based on the LHV of methanol.