Ethanol catalytic membrane reformer for direct PEM FC feeding

• Autores: Koch, Reinhold; Lopez, Eduardo; Divins, Núria J.; Allué, Miguel; Jossen, Andreas; Riera, Jordi; Llorca, Jordi
• Año de publicación: 2013
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Materia: Ethanol steam reforming; Metal membrane; PEM fuel cell; Sensitivity analysis; Dynamic modeling; Reformer control
• Institución: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

In this paper an ethanol reformer based on catalytic steam reforming with a catalytic honeycomb loaded with RhPd/CeO2 and palladium separation membranes with an area of 30.4 cm2 has been used to generate a pure hydrogen stream of up to 100 ml/min to feed a PEM fuel cell with an active area of 5 cm2. The fuel reformer behavior has been extensively studied under different temperature, ethanolewater flow rate and gas pressure at a fixed S/C ratio of 1.6 (molar). The hydrogen yield has been controlled by acting upon the ethanol-water fuel flow and gas pressure. A mathematical model of the ethanol reformer has been developed and an adaptive and predictive control has been implemented on a real time system to take account of its nonlinear behavior. With this control the response time of the reformer can be reduced by a factor of 7 down to 8 s. The improved dynamics of the controlled reformer match better the quickly changing hydrogen demands of fuel cells. They reached a magnitude where costly hydrogen buffers between the reformer and the fuel cell can be omitted and an electric buffer at the output of the fuel cell is sufficient.
Fil: Koch, Reinhold. Universitat Technical Zu Munich;
Fil: Lopez, Eduardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - CONICET - Bahia Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingenieria Quimica (i); Argentina;
Fil: Divins, Núria J.. Institut de Têcniques Energetiques, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, España;
Fil: Allué, Miguel. Institut de Robótica i Informática Industrial; España;
Fil: Jossen, Andreas. Institute for Electrical Energy Storage Technology. Technische Universitat Munchen; Alemania;
Fil: Riera, Jordi. Institut de Robótica i Informática Industrial; España;
Fil: Llorca, Jordi. Institut de Têcniques Energetiques, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, España;