Experimental study on hydrogen production |from methane rich combustion in built-in porous media Swiss-roll reactor

A new type of hydrogen-generation reactor with porous ceramics arranged regularly inside and a Swiss-roll heat exchanger outside was designed. The fuel rich combustion experiment was investigated with the mixture of methane and air at an equivalence ratio ranging from 1.25 to 2.50 and a total flow rate ranging from 60L/min to 120L/min. The combustion characteristics of autothermal reforming were studied. The experimental results show that it can realize the self-maintenance combustion and come to the self-stabilization fast in the fuel-rich conditions. The preheating effects of Swiss-roll structure and the heat storage of porous media can raise the reaction temperature to more than 1600K, and realize the superadiabatic fuel rich combustion. The hydrogen production rate and energy utilization which change inconsistently with the equivalence ratio at a fixed total flow rate range can reach 30%~57% and 50%~84%, respectively. The maximum molar fraction of hydrogen, hydrogen production rate and energy utilization are up to 22%, 57%, and 68%, respectively at an equivalence ratio of 2.0.