PETR 129 |
| Carbonate fuel cells are a new generation of power plants that provide electricity at very high efficiency and with very low environmental emissions. FuelCell Energy, Inc. (FCE) is developing a 625 kW fuel cell power plant for marine applications based on its Direct Carbonate Fuel Cell (DFCä) technology. The power plant is designed for operation on Mil-F-16884J Naval distillate fuel designated as NATO F-76. This fuel is characterized as a 385°C (max) end boiling point diesel fuel with up to 1% sulfur by weight. Conventionally, an external reformer is used to supply hydrogen rich gas to a fuel cell. FuelCell Energy's DFCTM technology has adopted an internal reforming approach that eliminates the need for an external reformer, resulting in increased efficiency, compactness, better thermal management and lower cost. Processing of distillate fuel in the marine power plant design includes a high-pressure hydrodesulfurizing followed by adsorption of H2S over a ZnO bed in the first stage producing desulfurized liquid fuel. The second stage employs an adiabatic prereformer, which reacts the desulfurized distillate with steam producing a methane rich fuel gas. The converted fuel is expanded through a turbo expander generator, reheated and directed to the anodes in the DFCä stacks. For ship service applications, the logistic fuel preprocessing, especially sulfur removal system, needs to be compact and low weight. In order to accomplish this objective, an advanced sulfur adsorbent is required that can be regenerated number of cycles. FCE is involved in the development of advanced and high capacity regenerable sulfur adsorbents. Bench scale tests of the advanced adsorbents indicate significantly higher capacity than commercially available adsorbents. The sulfur level in the fuel is reduced to less than 100 ppb. This presentation will discuss an advanced desulfurization adsorbent for processing logistic fuels and the status of its development. |
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Fuel Processing for Hydrogen Production
1:30 PM-5:00 PM, Wednesday, 13 September 2006 Palace -- Presidio Room, Oral
Division of Petroleum Chemistry |