Hydrogen from Natural Gas. Part I — Autothermal Reforming in an Integrated Fuel Processor

Sheldon H. D. Lee, Daniel V. Applegate, Shabbir Ahmed, Steven G. Calderone,* and Todd L. Harvey*

 *H2-fuel, LLC

A fuel processor, which incorporates a catalytic autothermal reformer (ATR), a sulfur trap, and a water-gas-shift (WGS) bed engineered to thermally integrate the ATR and WGS processes for improved thermal efficiency, was developed and tested with natural gas as a hydrogen generator for fuel cell applications. In this study, the fuel processor was successfully run over 2300 h of continuous operation at 3.1-16.0 kWth input energy capacities. Test results obtained from characterizing the ATR performance show that the reformer achieved over 40% H₂ (dry basis) in the ATR reformate and 96-99.9% methane conversion over the entire test duration. The methane reforming efficiency reached over 90% at 16.0 kWth input energy level (or equivalent to 29 L/min fuel processing rate), but decreased with decreasing fuel processing rate. The oxygen-to-fuel molar ratio and the fuel processing rate were found to be the key operating parameters in determining the ATR bed temperature, the methane conversion, and the methane reforming efficiency.

Copyright 2004, International Association for Hydrogen Energy

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International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 30(8), 829-842