G112 Experimental estimation of reaction rate for steam reforming of dimethyl ether and methanol and its application for numerical simulation

The steam reforming of dimethyl ether (DME) is expected to be used for the production of hydrogen, and we have been developing a small reformer of DME to produce hydrogen. Although self-sustainability of the reformer was already achieved experimentally, numerical simulation is necessary in order to design the optimized reformer. In this study, a reaction rate expression of DME steam reforming, which can be used for the numerical simulation, was estimated thorough the experimental method. In addition, to compare the characteristics of DME steam reforming, a reaction rate expression for methanol steam reforming was also obtained. Finally, one-dimensional numerical simulation was carried out to reveal the effect of the heat source for the reformer using the estimated reaction rate expressions.