Contents
Nomenclature ... 9
1. Introduction ... 13
1.1 SOFC background ... 13
1.2 Fuel processing for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells ... 16
1.3. Previous studies ... 19
1.4 Aims and scope ... 26
2. Mathematical formulation of the problem ... 27
2.1 Heat transfer inside the porous internal reformer ... 29
2.1 Radiative heat transfer ... 33
2.3 Mathematical model for fuel reforming process ... 33
3. An analysis of methane/steam reforming kinetics ... 37
3.1 Experimental facility and procedure ... 37
3.2 Catlyst materials and its preparation ... 39
3.3 Experimental Methodology ... 42
3.4. Numerical model for reaction kinetics ... 51
3.5. Results and Discusion ... 55
4. An analysis of biogas reforming ... 61
4.1 Numerical model for biogas reforming process ... 61
4.1.1 Implicit method ... 61
4.1.2 Explicit method ... 64
5. The thermodynamic analysis of carbon deposition ... 71
5.1 The thermodynamic analysis of carbon formation during methane/steam reforming ... 73
5.2 The thermodynamic analysis of carbon formation during dry reforming of methane ... 83
6. Numerical model ... 101
6.1 Formulation and numerical scheme ... 101
6.1.1 Radiative heat transfer ... 101
6.1.2 Flow field calculation inside porous media reactor ... 103
6.2 Numerical results ... 109
7. Conclusions ... 149
References ... 151
