Steam reforming of diesel fuel for the solid oxide fuel cell

'Full text:' Diesel fuel is a very attractive source of hydrogen for fuel cells due to the global infrastructure for production and distribution that currently exists today. A possible application for fuel cells is to replace diesel generators in remote sites where emissions can be extremely harmful. Diesel has a high potential yield of hydrogen per molecule of fuel because of the length of the carbon chains. Therefore the potential energy density makes diesel fuel a desirable medium from which to extract hydrogen for fuel cell applications. A novel reactor has been designed and assembled to steam reform diesel fuel and provide enough hydrogen-rich gas to generate 1 kW of electricity if integrated with a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). The reactor consists of an annular packed bed of sulphur tolerant catalyst surrounded by high-temperature resistant alloys. Dodecane was chosen as a sulphur-free surrogate to represent diesel for the initial tests and proof of concept. Dodecane (C12H26) is a hydrocarbon chain representative of the molecular weight range of diesel fuel components. The reformer successfully produced a hydrogen-rich product gas on a dodecane-steam feed. No signs of carbon formation at the fuel injection point or in the catalyst bed have been detected. Results indicate that product gas composition is very close to that predicted by the thermodynamic equilibrium. (author)