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Propane Reforming Process Development


EMSL Project ID
23996a

Abstract

The proposed project is to investigate the conversion of propane to a hydrogen-rich reformate stream for commercially-deployed portable fuel cell applications. Most of these applications occur in places or with customers where pure water (required for steam reforming) is not available, but the convenience of reliable, portable power is desired. The commercial client would like to develop a reforming system that is independent of external water sources and operates on commercially available disposable propane cylinders. While steam reforming could potentially provide a more efficient system (higher energy density), the lack of available pure water dictates that the system be based on partial oxidation instead. The proposed system train includes partial oxidation (POx) of propane to synthesis gas (H2, CO, CO2), followed by water-gas shift (WGS) to produce a hydrogen-rich reformate stream containing roughly 1% CO. The resultant fuel stream would then be fed to a high-temperature CO-tolerant PEM fuel cell. See Figure 1 for system schematic.

Project Details

Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Start Date
2007-05-31
End Date
2008-06-01
Status
Closed

Team

Principal Investigator

Robert Dagle
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Team Members

Benjamin Roberts
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Jianli Hu
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Daniel Palo
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory