Fuel Processing of Diesel and Kerosene for Auxiliary Power Unit Applications

Energy Fuels, Article ASAP, DOI: 10.1021/ef301976f, Publication Date (Web): February 11, 2013
Fuel Processing of Diesel and Kerosene for Auxiliary Power Unit Applications
Joachim Pasel *†, Remzi Can Samsun †, Ralf Peters †, and Detlef Stolten †‡
j.pasel@fz-juelich.de
† Electrochemical Process Engineering (IEK-3), Institute of Energy and Climate Research (IEK), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425 Jülich, Germany
‡ IEK-3 Fuel Cells (FZ Jülich), Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen University, 52072 Aachen, Germany
Abstract
Aside from balance-of-plant components, including pumps, blowers, sensors, and heat exchangers, the fuel processing unit of a high-temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cell (HT-PEFC) system based on autothermal reforming contains three main components.  They are: the autothermal reformer, the water-gas shift reactor, and the catalytic burner. In Jülich, several generations of these catalytic reactors have been designed, constructed, and manufactured, with a wide range of thermal powers, ranging from 13 to 140 kW.
Authors describe characteristic common features of the respective reactor generations, as well as their specific structural features. The experimental part of the paper concentrates on investigations with different generations of reactors for autothermal reforming using different diesel and kerosene fuels, which were produced either via the gas-to-liquid or bio-to-liquid process or in a conventional manner from crude oil. Authors show that autothermal reforming of synthetic kerosene and diesel fuel can be performed for 6000 h of time on stream at a fuel conversion of 99.99 and 99.67%, respectively.
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