Novel nickel foam with multiple microchannels as combustion reaction support for the self-heating methanol steam reforming microreactor

To improve hydrogen production performance of self-heating methanol steam reforming (MSR) microreactor, novel nickel foam with multiple microchannels was proposed as combustion reaction support. A wall temperature comparison of the methanol combustion microreactors with nickel foam catalyst support and particles catalyst support in the combustion reaction process was performed. According to the numerical simulation result of combustion reaction of nickel foam, the shape and size of multiple microchannels of nickel foam were determined. The laser processing was then used to fabricate the multiple microchannels of nickel foam. The experimental results show that the methanol combustion microreactor with nickel foam loaded with Pt catalyst exhibits similar wall temperature distribution with the methanol combustion microreactor with Pt/γ-Al2O3 particles reaction support. Compared with the nickel foam without a microchannel, the maximum temperature difference (ΔTmax) and the maximum temperature of nickel foam with multiple microchannels were decreased, respectively, by 57.8% and 33.8 °C when 1.1 mL/min methanol flow rate was used. Hydrogen production performance of the self-heating MSR microreactor using the nickel foam with multiple microchannels increased by about 21% when 430 °C reforming temperature and 4 mL/h methanol–water mixture flow rate were performed.