ABSTRACT This study presents a multiphysics numerical investigation of a plate‐type methane steam reformer (MSR) intended for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) applications. The focus is placed on resolving the coupled thermo‐fluidic behavior, species transport, and reaction kinetics associated with MSR and water–gas shift (WGS) reactions within the reformer. A three‐dimensional CFD model was developed to analyze internal flow distribution, heat transfer characteristics, and catalytic performance under different configurations. Three MSR configurations—baseline (Ver.1), dual‐baffle (Ver.2), and four‐baffle S‐shaped (Ver.3)—were constructed to examine the effects of flow‐field design on gas distribution, catalytic utilization, and temperature uniformity. Model validation using industrial data confirmed the reliability of the simulation, with an average composition error of only 4.58%. Results show that the baseline configuration exhibits significant dead zones and severe thermal nonuniformity, limiting reaction efficiency. The dual‐baffle design improves temperature distribution but introduces a substantial pressure drop. The optimized S‐shaped Ver.3 model demonstrates the best overall performance, achieving near‐complete elimination of stagnant regions, enhanced WGS activity, a 31.2% reduction in CO concentration, and a 4.3% increase in hydrogen yield compared to the baseline. In addition, Ver.3 reduces the maximum temperature gradient by 32.7%, highlighting significant improvements in thermal management and system stability.
Kuo et al. (Tue,) studied this question.