Testing of fuel cell processor with low-temperature PEM fuel cell

In the project a reformer system with a high degree of automatic control has been build that fulfils the CHP requirements to operation time, dynamics etc. This work, with a FP05 reformer unit, has given valuable results concerning the possibilities and limitations of the reformer technology for CHP usage. It is important that the reformer and fuel cell units are designed with matching yields to optimise efficiency, turn-down start-up time etc. The burner that delivers heat for the steam reaction shall be able to use natural gas as fuel. This gives the possibility of using existing burner technology. In addition this will improve the efficiency since it will not be necessary to reform natural gas to feed the burner. The large number of BoP components in the FP05 unit is primarily used for achieving good regulation dynamics and accuracy. To reduce the number of components, a CHP unit with few or only one operational point should be considered. A single point of operation will reduce the number of valves as well as the requirements to the control and regulation of the system. A large part of the reformer size is needed to meet the high demands for CO purification of the reformat. This purification results in a very narrow window of operation for the reformer system. By using more CO tolerant fuel cells this part of the system can be reduced or even eliminated. To test the developed automatic control it was planned to integrate the FP05 reformer with a 10kW CHP unit that was being build by IRD in a separate project. This unit was perfect in size for testing with the reformer. However due to a number of reasons it was not possible during the project period to fully integrate the two units