Catalytic Decomposition of Methanol for Onboard Hydrogen Generation

摘要

The steam reformation of an equimolar mixture of methanol and water on a copper chromite catalyst was studied at three furnace temperatures and at methanol space ve-locities from 800 to 2600 per hour. The hydrogen space velocity could be related to the reactor temperature by the equation Sv = A exp(-w)/T), where A and w are con¬stants determined for each value of a and T is temperature. At a methanol conver¬sion of 0.87 and a reactor temperature of 589 K, the extrapolated value of the hydrogen space velocity was 9400 per hour. This velocity was used to estimate the size of an onboard hydrogen reactor for automotive applications. Such a reactor would need only about 0.8 liter of catalyst to produce 7630 STP liters (1.5 lb) of hydrogen per hour. This quantity of catalyst would fit into nine tubes 17.8 centimeters long and 2.54 centi¬meters in inside diameter, which is smaller than most mufflers. The reactor products would contain 12 to 13 percent more chemical energy than the incoming methanol and water.