Portable Battlefield Fuel Desulfurizer

"Mesoscopic Devices proposes to design and demonstrate an advanced, portable fuel desulfurizer in response to the topic area of interest "Area 2: Technology for handling fuels and processing fuels to meet fuel cell requirements." The proposed portabledesulfurizer can utilize sulfur sorbents many times more efficiently than typical fixed bed, moving bed, or even fluidized bed approaches. The improved efficiency directly translates into an estimated system size 35 times smaller than a fixed-bedsingle-use system having similar fuel capacity based on a 5-year, maintenance-free life cycle operating at 2,000 hr/yr. For a 2 kg/hr fuel stream containing 700 ppm sulfur, our conservative estimates indicate that the new desulfurizer system resultingfrom the Phase I effort will occupy about 2 liters and weigh about 3 kg. The proposed system utilizes an innovative sorbent geometry with integrated regeneration subsystems. In Phase I, we will experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of the proposedapproach, and through modeling and subsystem experimentation, we will design a complete desulfurization system capable of treating 2 kg/hr of fuel containing 700 ppm sulfur. The desulfurization system developed in this project will significantly reduce thecost and logistics burden of using sulfur-sensitive fuel cell technologies for battlefield power generation. The portable desulfurizer will allow cleanup of JP-8 in the field to fuel cell standard