Modelling of methanol-to-hydrogen steam reforming with a heat flux distributed along a microchannel

The flow of reacting mixture of methanol and steam in a 2D microslot was studied numerically at activation of the reactions on the channel wall. This modelling was carried out in the framework of Navier — Stokes equations for a laminar flow of multicomponent compressible gas. Correlations between thermal, diffusion, and physical-chemical processes were studied under the conditions of intense endothermic reaction and external heat supply distributed along the channel. It is shown that not only the amount of heat supplied to the reaction zone is essential, but also the mode of heat supply along the channel length is important, which allows optimization of the compact reactor for hydrogen production.