Advanced Onboard Fuel Processor for PEM Fuel Cell Vehicles

Bowers, Brian J.; Zhao, Jian; Ruffo, Michael; Khan, Rafey; Sweetland, Virginie; Beziat, J.C.; Boudjemaa, Fabien

doi:10.4271/2006-01-0216

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…However, the hydrogen infrastructure still does not exist, construction of hydrogen fueling infrastructure is very costly and hydrogen storage technology remains a challenge. Under the auspices of U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and French car maker, Renault, Nuvera Fuel Cells have been developing on-board fuel processors for several years through continuous innovations focusing on catalyst selections, durability, control, power density, quick startup and fuel flexibility, with the success of Phase 1, 2 and 3 as reported in several precious papers (1)(2)(3)(4). Today Renault continues to work closely with Nuvera on the development of on-board fuel processors for PEMFC power module, with the goal of achieving the technical requirements for a commercial vehicle system at the end of Phase 4 (5).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Catalysis of Nuvera's On-Board Fuel Processor for Fuel Cell Vehicles

et al. 2007

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Nuvera's state-of-the-art on-board fuel processor is a very compact system with catalyst and heat exchanger volume of 80 liters, with a maximum power input of 215 kWth, and with hydrogen efficiencies capabilities above 77%. For our fuel processor we use four distinct reaction zones, ATR-HTS-LTS- PrOx. The entire fuel processor, with balance of plant controls components, can be packaged in a volume of 150-liter designed to fit in the floor of a vehicle.The on-board fuel processor design is quite flexible; it can operate on a number of fuels including gasoline, diesel, ethanol, methanol and gas fuels, and the fuel processor can be either scaled up or scaled down for other applications, for example, APU systems. Also, the on- board fuel processors were integrated successfully with Nuvera's automotive PEM fuel cell stacks. A fuel processor start-up time of less than 4 minutes was achieved to the target value for the fuel cell.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Catalysis of Nuvera's On-Board Fuel Processor for Fuel Cell Vehicles

et al. 2007

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“…To summarize, the automotive fuel processor is designed to fit in an under-floor vehicle compartment and is based on an autothermal reforming (ATR) process. To produce hydrogen with low CO for use in a fuel cell, the fuel processor contains five catalyst zones as listed below and shown in Figure As reported previously, this automotive fuel processor design has evolved in several steps throughout Phases 1, 2, and 3 of this program 1 . The first major design step occurred during and prior to Phase 1, where traditional industrial reforming technologies using pellet-based catalysts were replaced by substrate-based catalysts and custom heat exchangers in order to achieve a volume reduction of more than 10 times (80 liters vs. >800 liters).…”

Section: Power Plant Goalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The program is currently near the end of Phase 3, which builds upon the success of Phases 1, 2 and 3 as reported in previous papers 1,5,6,7,8 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-Fuel Fuel Processor and PEM Fuel Cell System for Vehicles

Bowers¹,

Zhao²,

Ruffo³

et al. 2007

SAE Technical Paper Series

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An ongoing program has made further technology advances in onboard fuel processors for use with PEM fuel cells. These systems are being explored as an option for reducing vehicle CO 2 emissions and for other benefits such as fuel-flexibility that would allow vehicles to operate on a range of bio-fuels, conventional fuels, and synthetic fuels to support diversification and/or "greening" of the fuel supply.As presented at the 2006 SAE World Congress 1 , Renault and Nuvera Fuel Cells previously developed fuel processor technology that achieved automotive size (80 liters) and power (1.4 g/s of hydrogen production) and reduced the startup time from more than 60 minutes to between 1.4 and 3.7 minutes to have CO <100 ppm. This paper presents an overview of the multi-fuel fuel cell power plant along with advances in the fuel processing system (FPS) technology and the testing results obtained since those reported in 2006.The latest generation of this technology has made advances by improving the hydrogen efficiency to more than 80% over the entire operating range (33 to 215 kW th fuel input) while keeping CO below the 100 ppm target, lowering the pressure drop to improve system efficiency, and simplifying the balance of plant including eliminating the need for unreliable steam components. This fuel processor system also replaced laboratory air supply components with a low pressure drop automotive-style air supply system that successfully controlled the split of flow from the main compressor into three parallel branches for the ATR, Prox, and TGC.In addition, an automotive fuel processor was tested with an automotive fuel cell stack and produced electricity from a broad range of fuels including ethanol, gasoline, and diesel. As an extreme demonstration of the fuelflexibility, data is presented for a real-time switch from ethanol to diesel while the fuel cell continues to produce electric power. This demonstrates a switch from a biofuel to a difficult conventional fuel and also shows the use of a spark ignition fuel and a compression ignition fuel in the same hardware.

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2008

Fuel Processing

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Advanced Onboard Fuel Processor for PEM Fuel Cell Vehicles

Cited by 5 publications

References 2 publications

Catalysis of Nuvera's On-Board Fuel Processor for Fuel Cell Vehicles

Catalysis of Nuvera's On-Board Fuel Processor for Fuel Cell Vehicles

Multi-Fuel Fuel Processor and PEM Fuel Cell System for Vehicles

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