Methanol-steam reforming. I. A theromodynamic study

The methanol-steam reforming (MSR) is a main method to convert methanol into a hydrogen rich gas for fuel cells. This paper presents an evaluation method of the MSR process performance. The dependence of thermal effectiveness on pressure (P), temperature (T) and input steam/methanol ratio (a) has been established The effectiveness bar a maximum at T=473K and a = 1.75, and in these conditions the dry gas contains 74.83%H-2, 24.68% CO2, 0.41% CO and only 40 ppmv methanol. These results are very useful for the design of the kinetic experiments.