Ethanol Steam reforming in a counter-current dense Pd-Ag membrane reactor

The need for an alternative source of energy is inevitable, due to energydemand and restricted supply of conventional energy resources. One of thepotential long term solutions to this crisis is the use of hydrogen as anenergy carrier. In this work, the ethanol steam-reforming reaction to producepure hydrogen has been studied theoretically. A mathematical model hasbeen formulated for a palladium membrane reactor packed with a Co-basedcatalyst and the simulation results related to the membrane reactor forcounter-current configuration is presented in terms of ethanol conversionand molar fraction versus the length of the reactor. The results indicate thatthe counter-current reactor gives higher hydrogen recovery in comparisonto co-current.

Keywords:

Ethanol steam reforming , Membrane reactor , Hydrogen production , Fuel cell