Selective CO Methanation in H 2 -Rich Gas for Household Fuel Cell Applications

Panagiota Garbis and Andreas Jess
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Panagiota Garbis: Chair of Chemical Engineering, Center of Energy Technology, University Bayreuth, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany
Andreas Jess: Chair of Chemical Engineering, Center of Energy Technology, University Bayreuth, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-11

Abstract: Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are often used for household applications, utilizing hydrogen produced from natural gas from the gas grid. The hydrogen is thereby produced by steam reforming of natural gas followed by a water gas shift (WGS) unit. The H 2 -rich gas contains besides CO 2 small amounts of CO, which deactivates the catalyst used in the PEMFCs. Preferential oxidation has so far been a reliable process to reduce this concentration but valuable H 2 is also partly converted. Selective CO methanation considered as an attractive alternative. However, CO 2 methanation consuming the valuable H 2 has to be minimized. The modelling of selective CO methanation in a household fuel cell system is presented. The simulation was conducted for single and two-stage adiabatic fixed bed reactors (in the latter case with intermediate cooling), and the best operating conditions to achieve the required residual CO content (100 ppm) were calculated. This was done by varying the gas inlet temperature as well as the mass of the catalyst. The feed gas represented a reformate gas downstream of a typical WGS reaction unit (0.5%–1% CO, 10%–25% CO 2 , and 5%–20% H 2 O (rest H 2 )).

Keywords: CO methanation; ruthenium catalyst; process simulation; adiabatic reactor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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