Design, Manufacturing And Application Of Micro-reactor For Hydrogen Production Based On Metal Foam Support

According to hydrolysis of sodium borohydride, two kinds of microreactor for hydrogen production for different power hydrogen fuel cells which use metal foam as catalyst support were designed and manufactured. Reactor's performance was analyzed through theoretical calculation, simulation analysis and experimental verification. And these two kinds of microreactors were applied with fuel cell in system. The main research content of this paper is as follows:Based on metal foam catalyst support, tube microreactor for kilowatt fuel cell was designed and manufactured, using a special nozzle structure to make solution contact fully with catalyst; board microreactor for 10-watt fuel cell was designed and manufactured, using distribution structure and channel structure of gas-liquid separation to achieve the separation of hydrogen and the reaction solution. The relationship of pressure drop and flow rate in these two kinds of microreactors and the heat transfer performance of metal foam catalyst support were calculated.The fluid velocity and pressure distribution in metal foam with different inlet velocity and different structural parameters was analyzed by Fluent, obtained discipline of fluid velocity and pressure distribution in metal foam. The reactor's performance can be analyzed by velocity distribution and pressure drop. The influence of different inlet velocity to microreactor's flow velocity and pressure distribution was simulated. The fluid in these two kinds of microreactors distributed uniformly, pressure drop increased with the speed increased.Board microreactor and tube microreactor were machined, reactor performance test system was built. The results show that: in the board reactor, hydrogen production rate increased with the inlet velocity decreased and temperature increased, the performance of nickel foam support is better than the performance of copper foam; in the tube microreactor, hydrogen production rate increased with the inlet velocity increased.These two kinds of microreactors were applied with fuel cell in system. By using tube microreactor, a hydrogen generation system for kilowatt high-power fuel cells was designed, including hydrogen generation equipment and control system, the system is reliable and automatic; by using board microreactor, B-μPEMFC system for 10-watt low-power electric equipment was designed, theory verification platform and test platform of B-μPEMFC system were built.