Development of an advanced system of fuel cell cogeneration of heat and power (micro-CHP)
A micro-CHP system is a small heat engine that provides all the power for a home: heating, ventilation, air conditioning and electricity. Many times, the electricity generated can be sold to the grid using the natural gas that gets to the houses. Tecnalia is working in a system that consists of two parts: a reactor to produce heat and hydrogen from natural gas, and a fuel cell that converts hydrogen to electricity. The initiative ReforCELL develops a novel more efficient and cheaper multi-fuel membrane reformer for pure hydrogen production in order to intensify the process of hydrogen production through the integration of reforming and purification in one single unit. The process intensification (PI) will probably be the next revolution in the chemical industry. It consists in the development of chemical engineering leading to a substantially stronger, cleaner, safer, smaller and more efficient technology. This high efficient heat and power cogeneration system is based on two designs: the construction and testing of an advanced reformer for pure hydrogen production with optimization of all the components of the reformer (catalyst, membranes, heat management etc); and on the other hand is the design and optimization of all the components for the connection of the membrane reformer to the fuel cell stack. Tecnalia works in ReforCELL initiative with TU/e, CEA, POLIMI, SINTEF, ICI, HYGEAR, SOPRANO, HYBRID, QUANTIS y JRC companies.
Countries
Spain