Design of hydrogen processor for proton exchange membrane fuel cell system fuelled by methanol

Abstract

The hydrogen is a main fuel for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) for generating electricity. However, the usage of pure hydrogen in vehicle system confronts the problems related to hydrogen storage and transportation. Therefore, the on-board fuel processor is preferred and particularly when fuelled by methanol. For the reforming technology, the steam reforming was considered as the promising process as it offers highest hydrogen when compared with the others. However, the CO content in product should be reduced by CO clean-up systems before feeding to PEM fuel cell. In this work, the comparisons between SYS I consisting of steam reformer (SR) and preferential oxidation reactor (PROX) and SYS II consisting of SR, water gas shift reactor and PROX were investigated in terms of total catalyst weight, hydrogen production and energy consumption at various temperatures of steam reformer, WGS reactor (only for SYS II) and PROX reactor to select and design a suitable methanol-fuelled hydrogen production system for PEMFC. Mathematical model for all reactors as considered as isothermal and one-dimensional model. SYS I is reported to be a suitable system for producing hydrogen for 50 kW PEMFC using 29.20 kg of steam reforming catalyst and and 0.80 kg of PROX reactor