Purification of Biogas for Fuel Cells

Renewable energy deriving from biomass sources has great potential for growth to meet our future energy demands. However, this fuel must be purified before use in a fuel cell to prevent harmful effects from contaminants. Reactive Innovations recently conducted a successful Phase I SBIR effort for the Navy which demonstrated the feasibility of our approach to remove hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and siloxanes from biogas. The proposed Phase II program will advance the Phase I work by optimizing both the siloxane and hydrogen sulfide removal systems, as well as developing a technology to remove halogenated hydrocarbons. The Phase II program has the goal of developing a purification system capable of processing simulated biogas to a purity levels compatible with a commercial solid oxide fuel cell. In the proposed Phase II option program, we will scale-up the technology and partner with a solid oxide fuel cell supplier to demonstrate the purification system to deliver purified biogas to a 2 kW fuel cell.