Plate heat exchanger fuel processors on the meso- and microscale

2 Plate heat exchanger fuel processors on the meso- and microscale 

Dudfield et al. [ 161 ] combined a 20 kW methanol reformer with two oil-cooled reactors for the preferential oxidation of carbon monoxide switched in series. The remaining concentration of carbon monoxide in the product was lower than 10 ppm for more than 2 h at a feed concentration of 1.6% carbon monoxide. 

Because the reformer was a combination of steam reformer and catalytic burner in plate and fin design, this was regarded as an early and impressive demonstration of the capabilities of the integrated heat exchanger design for fuel processors in the kilowatt range. 

Yoshida et al. [173] designed an integrated methanol fuel processor from silicon and Pyrex glass substrates for a power equivalent of 10 W. It contained functional layers for steam reforming, evaporation, and combustion. Commercial Cu/ ZnO catalyst served for reforming and the Pt/TiOa combustion catalyst was prepared by a sol-gel method. A power density of 2.1 W/cm was determined for the device. 

An advanced fuel cell/microfuel processor systems is the VeGA system developed by Truma Geratetechnik GmbH, and Institut fiir Mikrotechnik Mainz GmbH (IMM) has been described by Wichert et al. [106]. The power output of the systems amounts to about 300 W, while 50 W are consumed by the balance of plant components, which leaves 250 W for the consumer. The fuel processor and a fully integrated and automated 

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