Adsorption-and Membrane-Enhanced Reactor for Fuel Reforming Applications

Small-scale hydrogen production, for both mobile and stationary applications, is a technology critical to the future implementation of fuel cell technology. Existing fuel reforming processes are extremely complicated, as well as capital- and energy-intensive, primarily due to their high temperature (600 to >800ºC) requirements. These disadvantages handicap the scale-down of existing reforming processes. Furthermore, the high-purity-hydrogen requirement (e.g., for PEM-type fuel cells) dictates a series of separation and purification steps as a post-treatment. This project will develop a hybrid reactor that integrates an adsorption reactor (AR) and a membrane reactor (MR) into a single integrated unit, allowing hydrogen production at 350 to 450ºC. The hybrid system will be simple to operate and compact in size. More importantly, the hydrogen will be produced with extremely low CO contamination and could potentially achieve a total conversion of hydrocarbon fuel. In Phase I, an experimental study will be performed to determine the hydrogen production efficiency and CO contaminant levels, in order to demonstrate technical feasibility. An existing mathematical model will be validated with experimental results, and then simulations for estimating H2 production rates, capital costs, and operating economics will be performed. In Phase II, a prototype unit will be fabricated for in-house testing and field demonstration. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The hybrid reactor should provide a small-scale fuel-reforming solution suitable for both distributed and on-board hydrogen production.