Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of methane steam reforming (MS)
reaction integrated with methane combustion (MC) in micro reformer was developed to compare the
effects of parallel and checked arrangements on reformer performance. At base case condition, the
checked and parallel arrangements provided a similar percentage of methane conversion which is about
68%, but hot and cold spots only appeared in the parallel arrangement. Furthermore, the flow direction
(co- and counter current flow) in each arrangement was also investigated. The co-current direction provided
slightly better results which is about 1% methane conversion in MS for both arrangements. By varying
parameters, channel width was the only parameter which showed different results in both
arrangements. The parallel arrangement showed higher performance when channel width was larger
than 5 mm, but the cold and hot spots were obviously presented. Therefore, the checked arrangement
with co-current flow is recommended for the reformer with larger than 5 mm channel width. For a smaller
reformer, the reactor performances of both arrangements were similar with the difference of lower
than 0.5% methane conversion in MS. Thus, the parallel arrangement with co-current flow is approved
to apply in small channel micro reformer with simple flow distributor