Chemical Engineering Science 62 (2007) 3112 – 3126 www.elsevier.com/locate/ces Experimental, kinetic and 2-D reactor modeling for simulation of the production of hydrogen by the catalytic reforming of concentrated crude ethanol (CRCCE) over a Ni-based commercial catalyst in a packed-bed tubular reactor Enefiok Akpan a , Abayomi Akande a , Ahmed Aboudheir b , Hussam Ibrahim a , Raphael Idem a , ∗ a Hydrogen Production Research Group, Process Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Regina, Regina, SK, Canada S4S 0A2 b HTC Purenergy, #001, 2305 Victoria Avenue, Regina, SK, Canada S4P 0S7 Received 30 November 2006; received in revised form 7 March 2007; accepted 8 March 2007 Available online 13 March 2007 Abstract Mechanistic kinetic models were formulated based on Langmuir–Hinshelwood–Hougen–Watson and Eley–Rideal approaches to describe the kinetics of hydrogen production by the catalytic reforming of concentrated crude ethanol over a Ni-based commercial catalyst at atmospheric pressure, temperature range of 673–863 K, ratio of weight of catalyst to the molar rate of crude ethanol 3472–34722 kg cat s/kmol crude in a stainless steel packed bed tubular microreactor. One of the models yielded an excellent degree of correlation, and was selected for the simulation of the reforming process which used a pseudo-homogeneous numerical model consisting of coupled material and energy balance equations with reaction. The model was solved using finite elements method without neglecting the axial dispersion term. The crude ethanol conversion predicted by the model was in good agreement with the experimental data (AAD% = 4.28). Also, the predicted concentration and temperature profiles for the process in the radial direction indicate that the assumption of plug flow isothermal behavior is justified within certain reactor configurations. However, the axial dispersion term still contributed to the results, and thus, cannot be neglected.  2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Concentrated crude ethanol; Fixed-bed reactor modeling; Hydrogen production; Simulation; Kinetics 1. Introduction The demand for hydrogen is increasing in recent times be- cause of its wide applications in areas such as the production of chemicals, aerospace propulsion, metallurgy, crude oil refining, heavy oil and oil sands upgrading, and as fuel for the proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell. Efforts to use hydrogen obtained from renewable source as fuel in fuel cells have also been intensified for the purposes of enabling alternative energy supply, environmental protection and regional development. Even though hydrogen possesses the highest energy content per unit weight (i.e., 120.7 kJ/g) compared to any of the known fuels and burns cleanly (Krumpelt et al., 2003), it does not ex- ist in the free form. An economically viable way of obtaining ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 306 585 4470; fax: +1 306 585 4855. E-mail address: Raphael.idem@uregina.ca (R. Idem). 0009-2509/$ - see front matter  2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ces.2007.03.006 hydrogen can thus provide an alternative to the present world- wide reliance on fossil fuels with their attendant high pollution and release of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Tradition- ally, hydrogen is produced commercially by the steam reform- ing of natural gas or naphtha (Sun et al., 2004). However, if a global cycle of clean and sustainable production of energy is envisaged, a new eco-friendly reservoir of hydrogen is needed. In this context, ethanol (a form of biomass) satisfies most of these requirements since it is easy to produce, and is also safe to handle, store and transport. Also, it is biodegradable, free of sulfur, low in toxicity and could be easily steam reformed to generate a hydrogen-rich mixture. In addition, it has high hy- drogen content per kg of material compared to methane, ethy- lene glycol, glycerol, glucose, and sorbitol. In the literature, the thermodynamic feasibility of the cat- alytic steam reforming of ethanol (CSRE) to produce H 2 has been fully investigated (Fishtik et al., 2000; Freni et al., 1996;