Development of PCM for recovering high temperature waste heat and utilization for producing hydrogen by reforming reaction of methane

For efficient heat-recovery of high temperature waste gas such as LDG in the form of latent heat, the utilization technology of phase change material, PCM, was experimentally studied. Copper balls as the PCM were encapsulated by nickel film with/without an insertion of carbon or ruthenium as an inhibition layer, based on an electro-plating method. Then, the effect of the film thickness on the strength of capsules was experimentally examined. As a result, the obtained PCM had enough strength by increasing the film thickness and showed an excellent catalytic property for reforming reaction from methane to hydrogen. In conclusion, the copper PCM with the thick film of nickel and an inactive layer between nickel and copper was available for producing hydrogen by recovering high-temperature waste heat efficiently.