Objective
The application of fuel cells for road traction using methanol as a fuel requires compact, cheap reformers to convert methanol to hydrogen. A major effort is needed to develop such reformers.
The purpose of this project is the development and construction of a high efficiency methanol reformer for hydrogen production to be integrated in a 50 kW SPEFC stack power plant for ground and river transport.
The best results obtained under test conditions showed methanol conversion between 87 and 93 %, with the value determined by the reforming temperature. The conversion efficiency was about 93%, and the overall thermal efficiency achieved was about 37%. The CO exhausted from the CO reducer was always less than 5 ppm. These promising results were somewhat offset by other difficulties that were not overcome during the work period. In particular, the cold start-up took about 30 minutes because of the heavy methanol reformer design. Also, the overall design of the prototype was not as compact as had originally been proposed, mainly because of the size of the commercial components that had been used in its construction.
The general technical approach is described step by step :
- Preliminary operating parameters:
the operating parameters of the reformer and the other components will be based on a 12-meter bus, with a small power requirement estimated at 50 kW for an urban cycle. This will be developed by ANSALDO RICERCHE (ARI).
- The catalyst selection and testing on the reformer, the CO reducer and the burner will be coordinated by ARI with support from ENGELHARD (minor sub-contractor), STAZIONE SPERIMENTALE DEI COMBUSTIBILI (SSC) and TECNARS
- The design and construction of the reformer and the CO reducer will be developed by TECNARS with the collaboration of ARI (stress analysis, thermal exchange calculation). The catalytic burner and the gas separators will be designed and built by, respectively, SAC and UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA (U).
- A general test of the plant design will be made by ARI, taking into account the advice of the manufacturers of individual components. The prototype will be assembled, tested and operated in ARI laboratories together with TECNARS, SAC and U.
- To evaluate the mechanical and vibration resistance tests, measurements, made by ARI on a bus to evaluate the typical vibration stresses during an urban cycle, will be used for the tests performed on a vibrant table by ARI laboratories.
The targets of the above system are: high conversion efficiency (95 %), high thermal efficiency (40 %), very compact arrangement (1 m3), high reliability, no pollution treatment device.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences environmental sciences pollution
- natural sciences chemical sciences organic chemistry alcohols
- natural sciences chemical sciences catalysis
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels fuel cells
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels renewable energy hydrogen energy
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
16152 GENOVA
Italy
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.