Reforming apparatus and method of operating the same

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide a reforming apparatus and the like capable of uniformly mixing water (steam) and a raw material together, of preventing the precipitation of carbon without using a temperature controller, and of efficiently heating the water and the mixture by heating gas. Accordingly, the reforming apparatus has the following configuration. The reforming apparatus includes: a first vaporizer () that is cylindrically shaped and includes a first flow passage; a second vaporizer () that is cylindrically shaped and includes a second flow passage; a duct () that connects an outlet of the first flow passage to an inlet of the second flow passage; a raw-material mixing portion () formed at a certain point of the duct. The first vaporizer and the second vaporizer are concentrically disposed. An interstice between the first vaporizer and the second vaporizer serves as a heating-gas flow passage (). In the first vaporizer, water () flowing through the first flow passage is heated by heating gas, and thereby is turned into steam. In the raw-material mixing portion, a mixture is obtained by mixing a raw material with the steam. In the second vaporizer, the mixture flowing through the second flow passage is heated by the heating gas and thereby is turned into superheated steam. The superheated steam flows through a reforming-catalyst layer ().