Ultra-pure Hydrogen Generation from Logistic Fuels

While fuel cell technology is attractive to meet the electric power requirements of the Navy, the Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cells require high putiy hydrogen fuel. The high sulfur content of the Navy distillate NATO F-76 makes the reformate clean up system in a fuel processor too complex for the compact and light-weight systems that are required. Hydrogen separation membrane that is contaminant tolerant is proposed. The use of such membrane that is stable in the reformate composition will simplify or even eliminate the reformate clean up subsystem. An additional aspect of this project will be to evaluate a compact fuel processor to reform F-76. The fuel processor is more efficient and reduces the common technical challenges such as low efficiency operation and soot formation encountered in reforming diesel fuel using conventional partial oxidation reformers. The operational characteristics of the two systems, reformer and the hydrogen separation membrane, allow for both process and physical integration making the overall conversion process of navy distillate into high purity hydrogen efficient and economical.