Tdk Corporation

Japan Science and Technology Agency

Masayuki Ogawa

Tomoyuki Saito

Hitoshi Takamura

Masuo Okada

To provide a method and an apparatus for reforming a hydrocarbon with a prolonged life of an oxygen-permeable membrane and a high recovery rate. The oxygen-permeable membrane absorbs the free energy change, &#x394;G, of a partial oxidation reforming reaction and then converts it into work for oxygen isolation and Joule heat, Q. Here, as seen in Table 1 and FIG., &#x394;G of the partial oxidation reforming reaction is approximately ten times larger than &#x394;H, and further increases as the temperature increases. The generated Joule heat, Q, has to be removed at a high efficiency, and this removal process is achieved by returning a portion of the Joule heat to the system as the entropy change, T&#x394;S, of the partial oxidation reaction itself and by steam reforming using the total energy change, &#x394;H.

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Sendai, Japan

Masayuki Ogawa