Study on a compact methanol reformer for a miniature fuel cell

Abstract A compact methanol reformer for hydrogen production has been successfully fabricated, which integrated one reforming chamber, one water gas shift reaction chamber, two preheating chambers and two combustion chambers. It can be started-up at room temperature by the combustion of liquid methanol in the combustion chamber within 7 min without any external heating. The cold start response of the methanol reformer has been investigated using different parameters including methanol and air supply rate, and the experiments revealed that the optimum methanol and air flow rate were 0.55 mL/min and 3 L/min respectively. The results indicated that this methanol reformer can provide a high concentration of hydrogen (more than 73%) and the system efficiency is always maintained above 74%. It is further demonstrated in more than 1600 h continuous performance that the reformer could be operated autothermally and exhibited good test stability.

[1]  Chenggang Xie,et al.  Development of a 2 W direct methanol fuel cell power source , 2004 .

[2]  S. Srinivasan,et al.  International activities in DMFC R&D: status of technologies and potential applications , 2004 .

[3]  Shudong Wang,et al.  Methanol steam reforming in a compact plate-fin reformer for fuel-cell systems , 2005 .

[4]  Chang-Soo Kim,et al.  Hydrogen production with integrated microchannel fuel processor for portable fuel cell systems , 2005 .

[5]  Sung Hyun Kim,et al.  Fast start-up of microchannel fuel processor integrated with an igniter for hydrogen combustion , 2006 .

[6]  Evan O. Jones,et al.  High efficiency and low carbon monoxide micro-scale methanol processors , 2004 .

[7]  G. Eigenberger,et al.  Methanol diffusion in water swollen ionomer membranes for DMFC applications , 2004 .

[8]  Sejin Kwon,et al.  MEMS fuel cell system integrated with a methanol reformer for a portable power source , 2009 .

[9]  Robert F. Savinell,et al.  High temperature proton exchange membranes based on polybenzimidazoles for fuel cells , 2009 .

[10]  Zhigang Qi,et al.  Open circuit voltage and methanol crossover in DMFCs , 2002 .

[11]  R. S. Besser,et al.  Understanding thermal integration issues and heat loss pathways in a planar microscale fuel processor: Demonstration of an integrated silicon microreactor-based methanol steam reformer , 2008 .

[12]  Masatoshi Nomura,et al.  Development of multi-layered microreactor with methanol reformer for small PEMFC , 2005 .

[13]  K. S. Dhathathreyan,et al.  Direct methanol fuel cells: determination of fuel crossover in a polymer electrolyte membrane , 2003 .

[14]  P. M. Diéguez,et al.  Integration of methanol steam reforming and combustion in a microchannel reactor for H2 production: A CFD simulation study , 2009 .

[15]  Kwang Ho Song,et al.  Development of the integrated methanol fuel processor using micro-channel patterned devices and its performance for steam reforming of methanol , 2007 .

[16]  Chunxi Zhang,et al.  Autothermal reforming of methanol in a mini-reactor for a miniature fuel cell , 2007 .

[17]  Mayuresh V. Kothare,et al.  A radial microfluidic fuel processor , 2005 .

[18]  Oh Joong Kwon,et al.  Silicon-based miniaturized-reformer for portable fuel cell applications , 2006 .

[19]  Chang-Soo Kim,et al.  Development of microchannel methanol steam reformer , 2004 .

[20]  Sung Han Kim,et al.  MEMS-based micro-fuel processor for application in a cell phone , 2006 .

[21]  Hao Yu,et al.  Effect of the metal foam materials on the performance of methanol steam micro-reformer for fuel cells , 2007 .

[22]  Evan O. Jones,et al.  Power generation using a mesoscale fuel cell integrated with a microscale fuel processor , 2004 .