This study investigates use of solar thermochemical processing of clean fuels using biomass products (in particular CH4, H2O). To address technological feasibility of a microchannel-based solar receiver/reactor, a combined numerical and experimental study of methane-steam reforming is carried out on a single microchannel with Palladium-deposited channel walls and heat input to facilitate endoth...

With the actual growth of the natural gas industry in the US as well as the potential and availability of this non-renewable carbon source worldwide, reforming of methane gas is getting increasing attention. Methane can be used for the production of heat or electricity, as well, it can be converted to syngas, a building block that could lead to the production of liquid fuels and chemicals, a ve...

A detailed study on the preparation of bimetallic PtSn/C catalysts using surface-controlled synthesis methods, and on their catalytic performance in the glycerol steam reforming reaction has been carried out. In order to obtain these well-defined bimetallic phases, techniques derived from Surface Organometallic Chemistry on Metals (SOMC/M) were used. The preparation process involved the reactio...

In this paper, we address the conceptual design of the bioethanol process from switchgrass via gasification. A superstructure is postulated for optimizing energy use that embeds direct or indirect gasification, followed by steam reforming or partial oxidation. Next, the gas composition is adjusted with membrane-PSA or water gas shift. Membrane separation, absorption with ethanol-amines and PSA ...

Synthesis gas manufacturing by steam reforming of hydrocarbons is an important industrial process. High endothermic nature of the process makes it one of the most cost and heat intensive processes. In the present work, composite effect of different inert gases on synthesis gas yield, feed gas conversion and temperature distribution along the reactor length has been studied using a heterogeneous...

Natural dry steam zones (vapour only) are relatively rare; most geothermal systems contain both liquid and vapour and typically follow a boiling point-depth (BPD) relationship. The Nanga Parbat uplift-driven conductive thermal anomaly results in a geothermal system which follows a BPD relationship at shallow levels, but below about 3 km fluid inclusions show that the hydrothermal fluid is dry s...

Ni0.9Fe0.1 alloy-supported solid oxide fuel cells with NiTiO3 (NTO) infiltrated into the cell support from 0 to 4 wt.% are prepared and investigated for CH4 steam reforming activity and electrochemical performance. The infiltrated NiTiO3 is reduced to TiO2-supported Ni particles in H2 at 650 °C. The reforming activity of the Ni0.9Fe0.1-support is increased by the presence of the TiO2-supported ...

Introduction Steam reforming is a process that converts hydrocarbon fuels into hydrogen and oxygenated carbon species. This process is important for catalytic hydrogen production and for direct electrochemical reforming of hydrocarbons over high temperature fuel cells, such as Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs). One of the main problems associated with the process is that conventional reforming (el...

The steady–state operation of the autothermal reformer is simulated as two reactors in series by means of a detailed mathematical model. An input-output model is selected to describe the upper combustion chamber. The possible occurrence of homogeneous steam reforming and watergas-shift (WGS) reactions is considered. The catalyst bed is represented through a one-dimensional heterogeneous model, ...