Autothermal Methanol Fuel Processor Ballard

Integrated Autothermal Methanol Fuel Processor (Ballard) 

Schuessler et al. [85] of XCELLSiS (later BALLARD) presented an integrated methanol fuel processor system based on autothermal reforming, which coupled fuel/water evaporation with exothermic preferential oxidation (PrOx) of carbon monoxide. The reactor technology was based, in contrast to most other approaches, on a sintering technique. 

The reforming reactor was built of copper powder, which could be sintered at temperatures between 500 and 700 °C, being low enough to avoid damage to the catalyst. In the same fabrication stage, the Cu/ZnO catalyst with a particle size between 300 and 500 pm was incorporated into the device. Copper and aluminum powder were used as inert materials for parts such as channels and diffusion layers. 

Platinum catalyst was introduced into an alumina-based suspension and then spray-coated. The evaporation was performed using porous cylinders of 7 mm diameter and 1 mm height introduced into each individual plate before performing 

After the reformer outlet, air was added again before the reformate entered the PrOx zone. The pressure drop of the whole coupled evaporator/reformer/PrOx reactor was limited to 200 mbar at full load. The whole IFP had a mass of 1.8 kg for a volume of 0.5 dm3. At a reaction temperature of 280 °C, a methanol feed of 15 mol h 1 and a water/methanol ratio of 1, almost complete ( 99%) conversion 

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