Thermal Modeling of a Honeycomb Reformer Including Radiative Heat Transfer

J. Schöne[1], A. Körnig[1], W. Beckert[1]
[1]Fraunhofer IKTS, Dresden, Germany
Published in 2013

Reformer and catalytic burners are common components in fuel cell systems, crucial for efficient preparation of fuel and exhaust gases of the fuel cell stack. We intend to show the influence of radiation to the temperature distribution inside of a reformer unit. The model consists of an axisymmetric representation of the inlet-zone and a catalytic porous zone. Fluid flow, convective and conductive heat transfer and simplified chemical reactions for oxidation and reforming are included. Due to temperatures up to 900°C radiation should be considered. For the inlet-zone the Surface-to-Surface radiation-model of COMSOL Multiphysics® is used and is coupled to a 1D user defined radiation in participating media model for the honeycomb. Temperature distributions for models with and without radiation are compared.