Desulphurization of Logistic JP-5 Jet Fuel for Enhanced Fuel Cell Operations

The proposal solicits funding for the development of a fuel processing component for the reforming of sulfur-laden JP-5 and other logistic fuels as part of an overall fuel cell energy system. Sulfur in such fuels will hinder the performance of reforming processes and the fuel, but existing sulfur-handling methods either are too difficult to adapt to small on-board reforming systems, or will require frequent maintenance to replace adsorption beds. The proposal outlines the work towards the development of a processing step based on the pre-reforming of the fuel in order to achieve two goals simultaneously: to and to strip and remove the sulfur species from the lighter fuel product in order to be either captured or vented later, and to reduce the fuel to small hydrocarbons that are less prone to coke formation at higher temperatures. The overall process include regeneration and redundancy for protection of downstream processing components. The proposal described a two phase work plan. In the first Phase, catalysts for the proposal process will be developed and tested in laboratory conditions to determine the feasibility of the process. In the second Phase, a test bed unit for this process will be built and demonstrated.