Electromagnetically induced in situ catalytic methanol steam reforming for hydrogen production

The tremendous influence of human activity on the Earth's climate, as well as the continued increase in global energy demand, have emphasized the importance of developing clean energy sources. Among them, hydrogen is a flexible and attractive energy carrier, as well as an important and widely used chemical. Methanol steam reforming is considered an ideal process for hydrogen production due to its superior reaction performance. However, the yield of hydrogen is limited by heat transport limitations in conventional externally heated reactors. In this study, an innovative electromagnetically induced in situ catalytic reactor was designed to enhance hydrogen production efficiency. Electromagnetic-thermal-chemical-flow multi-physical coupling models were established using the finite element method and experimentally validated. Under operating conditions of 20 A and 3000 kHz, the methanol conversion and carbon dioxide selectivity reached 99.3 % and 95.5 %, respectively. The energy efficiency of the hydrogen production process was analyzed, with the highest efficiency reaching 38.57 %. Furthermore, simulation-based extrapolations suggest that increasing the scale of hydrogen production can lower the cost per normal cubic meters of hydrogen. This study addresses the limitations of traditional hydrogen production units, such as long cold start times and large heat transfer resistance, which can advance the development of more efficient hydrogen energy technologies.