Reactor for renewable hydrogen from ethanol

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 82 KB
• Volume: 2004
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1464-2859
• DOI: 10.1016/s1464-2859(04)00162-2

✦ Synopsis

I n B r i e f

US Navy tests diesel reformer for hybrid ship

The US Office of Naval Research (ONR) is funding development of a diesel reforming system as part of its program to develop fuel cell based ship propulsion. The use of diesel would take advantage of its relatively low cost and the Navy's established infrastructure for buying, storing and transporting it.

ONR is testing a 500 kW diesel fuel reformer that is compatible with a PEM fuel cell, at the DOE's Idaho National Engineering & Environmental Laboratory. Diesel reforming is complicated by the presence of sulfur in the fuel. The integrated fuel processor heats and vaporizes the diesel, converting the sulfur to hydrogen sulfide, which is oxidized to sulfur dioxide by exposure to zinc oxide, and separated from the hydrogen.

Testing of the reforming process will continue until June. Meanwhile, ONR is looking at design approaches to reduce the size of the processor, which consists of an arrangement of valves, water-gas shift reactors, an oxidizer and other components.