Publication
Ethanol catalytic membrane reformer for direct PEM FC feeding
Journal Article (2013)
Journal
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
Pages
5605-5615
Volume
38
Number
14
Doc link
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2013.02.107
File
Authors
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Koch, Reinhold
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López, Eduardo
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Divins, Núria
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Allué Fantova, Miguel
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Jossen, Andreas
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Riera Colomer, Jordi
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Llorca, Jordi
Projects associated
Abstract
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 ewater 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.
Categories
automation.
Author keywords
ethanol steam reforming, metal membrane PEM fuel cell, sensitivity analysis, dynamic modeling, reformer control
Scientific reference
R. Koch, E. López, Núria J. Divins , M. Allué, A. Jossen, J. Riera and J. Llorca. Ethanol catalytic membrane reformer for direct PEM FC feeding. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 38(14): 5605-5615, 2013.
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