The experimental studies were conducted on the NiO:YSZ (60:40vol%) catalyst, one of the most typical materials, for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell anodes. The experimental conditions included various temperatures, methane flow, steam-to-carbon ratios and nitrogen-to-carbon ratios, which defines each of the measurement points. The goal of this study was to decrease the number of necessary experimental measurements for the calculations of the empirical parameters defining the kinetic of methane/steam reforming reaction. By the analysis with the Orthogonal Least Squares Method and an analysis of a-posteriori covariance matrix, the experimentation process has been optimized. The proposed systematic approach was applied to evaluate the minimal number of measurements required to achieve the assumed accuracy of final solution and to reveal the influence of distribution of experimental condition for the quality of final reaction kinetic equation.
It was proved that the number of experimental measurements can be reduced without significant deterioration in the quality of solution, if the dismissed measurements are properly chosen. In the paper the correlation between design experimental condition and quality of delivered model for the methane/steam reforming reaction is discussed. The proposed deliberation can be extended and provide useful strategy for the design of experimental procedures for the estimation of empirical reaction kinetic for various catalytic materials.