Distillate fuel preprocessor and reformer for fuel cell applications

PETR 109

Mehdi Namazian1, Siva Sethuraman1, Guha Venkataraman, guha@altetech.com1, and Chunshan Song, csong@psu.edu2. (1) Altex Technologies Corporation, 244 Sobrante Way, Sunnyvale, CA 94086, (2) Clean Fuels and Catalysis Program, The Energy Institute, and Department of Energy & Geo-Environmental Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, 209 Academic Projects Building, University Park, PA 16802
Distillate fuels are the fuel of choice for several FC markets. However, reforming distillate fuels is a challenge due to carbon residue and sulfur issues. To overcome these challenges, Altex and Penn State University (PSU) have developed the Distillate Fuel Preprocessor and Reformer (DFPPR) that can reliably transform distillate fuels into a reformate suitable for fuel cells. The success of DFPPR is in its approach, which preprocesses the fuel ahead of reforming. The fuel preprocessor (FPP) includes a fractionator followed by a desulfurizer. FPP removes the fuel sulfur and the majority of its carbon producing compounds and diverts them to a burner, where they are burned to produce heat needed for steam reforming. The clean fuel from the FPP is then converted to a reformate suitable for the specific fuel cell that best fits the application. The presentation will include the performance of different size fractionators, desulfurizers and reformer components and their integration into FPP and DFPPR systems.
 

Fuel Processing for Hydrogen Production
1:30 PM-5:20 PM, Tuesday, 12 September 2006 Palace -- Twin Peaks South, Oral

Division of Petroleum Chemistry

The 232nd ACS National Meeting, San Francisco, CA, September 10-14, 2006