Experimental Study on the Ethanol-Assisted Catalytic Steam Reforming of Endothermic Hydrocarbon Fuel

Abstract

Thermal protection is a critical problem in the development of hypersonic aircraft. To enhance the thermal protection capability of hydrocarbon fuel, the ethanol-assisted catalytic steam reforming of endothermic hydrocarbon fuel was proposed. The result shows that the total heat sink can be significantly improved by the endothermic reactions of ethanol. A higher water/ethanol ratio can promote the steam reforming of ethanol and further increase the chemical heat sink. The addition of 10 wt % ethanol at 30 wt % water content can improve the total heat sink by 8-17% at 300-550 °C, which is caused by the heat absorption by phase transition and chemical reactions of ethanol. The reaction region of thermal cracking moves backward, resulting in the suppression of thermal cracking. Meanwhile, the addition of ethanol can inhibit the coke deposition and increase the working temperature upper limit of the active thermal protection.