TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - CHEMICAL ENGINEERING - Preferred Apparatus: The heater is a heat exchanger heated by a fluid, preferably the gasses arising from the combustion of hydrogen or methanol. The heat exchanger comprises a hot side with a number of conduits through which the heating fluid flows and a cold side with conduits through which the medium (4) flows and heating is performed through a thermally conductive barrier. The second reactor is downstream of the first reactor so as to receive medium exhausted from first reactor. The housing comprises a central longitudinal axis along which the fan, reactors and heat exchanger are aligned. The fan is an impeller arranged at one end of the housing to circulate the medium (4) though the heat exchanger and reactors. The reformer includes a combustor (10) fueled by methanol and/or hydrogen for generating gases for use as heating fluid and has an exhaust outlet coupled to hot side of heat exchanger. The first reactor is a crossflow reactor. The water and methanol inlet are the same. Water and methanol are atomized by the impeller into the medium (4).Preferred Methods: Steam reformation of methanol method comprises:(i) providing a gaseous heat transfer medium comprising a first concentration of water vapor, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methanol vapor within a housing;(ii) positioning a heater, a first catalytic reactor and a second catalytic reactor in a housing such that the reactors are downstream of the housing and the reactors contain catalysts suitable for promoting reaction between water and methanol vapors;(iii) circulating the medium within the housing and through the reactors;(iv) heating the circulating medium with the heater sufficiently to heat the first and second catalysts to a suitable reaction temperature;(v) injecting water and methanol into the circulating medium;(vi) reacting part of the water and methanol in a first stage reaction on the second catalyst; and diverting a portion of the medium through the first catalyst to react the water and methanol in a second stage reaction to form a reformate gas with increased hydrogen and carbon dioxide concentrations and reduced methanol and water concentrations.The startup method comprises:(i) Circulating a startup gas within the housing sequentially through heater, channels and second catalyst;(ii) heating the startup gas to heat the catalysts to a reaction temperature;(iii) injecting methanol and water into the startup gas;(iv) reacting a part of the water and methanol in a first stage reaction on the second catalyst;(v) diverting a potion of the startup gas through the first catalyst to produce an effluent gas containing hydrogen, carbon dioxide, water methanol and the initial startup gas;(vi) repeating steps (i)-(v) until initial startup gas is substantially eliminated from effluent; and(vii) supplying the effluent to fuel cell.