Induction-Heated Integrated Tubular Catalytic Membrane Reactor for Enhanced Methanol Steam Reforming

An induction-heated tubular catalytic membrane reactor was designed to enhance methanol steam reforming for hydrogen production, and an evaporation model was established to predict methanol–water vapor inlet temperature and required input power. The reactor exhibited rapid and uniform heating with axial and radial temperature fluctuations confined within 10% and 2 K, respectively. Under the optimal conditions of 260 °C, the steam-to-methanol (SM) ratio of 1.5, and a weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) of 6 h–1, the reactor achieved 95% methanol conversion, 98% CO2 selectivity, H2 productivity of 79 kmol·m–3·h–1, and energy-utilization efficiency of 41.9%. Moreover, the reactor exhibited excellent operational stability under frequent start–stop cycles and 150 h of continuous operation with periodic in situ regeneration. Scale-up analysis further indicated that a 5 N·m3·h–1 system could achieve an energy-utilization efficiency above 80% with a compact reactor volume of only 0.04 m3, demonstrating strong potential for distributed hydrogen production.