Hydrogen Production From Petroleum Hydrocarbons

Abstract

The authors develop a small and simple steam-reforming reactor in a home-use size for such various heavy-hydrocarbons fuels as n-octane, n-decane, n-tetradecane, and n-hexadecane in addition to n-dodecane and measure the inside-temperature profile and the molar fractions of main-gas components such as H2, CH4, CO, and CO2. This reactor is designed only for laboratory-test use, not for a commercial product. As a result, the authors successfully achieve suitable inside-temperature profiles, namely, temperature almost linearly increases in the downstream direction along a reactor, under two conditions such as 600–950 K at the upstream end of the catalyst-layer bed in the reactor and less than 1070 K everywhere in the reactor. And, the authors reveal the effects of the liquid-hourly space velocity (LHSV) upon the molar fractions, a conversion ratio and reforming efficiencies for various heavy-hydrocarbons fuels. All the molar fractions, which agree well with thermochemical-equilibrium theory, are approximately independent of LHSV. The conversion ratio is about 90% for LHSV ≤ 0.6 h−1 and monotonically decreases with increasing LHSV for LHSV > 0.6 h−1. Then, each reforming efficiency always attains the maximum for LHSV ≈ 0.6 h−1 being independent of fuels. This suggests the common upper limit of LHSV for practically suitable operation.