 A conceptual model of a high-efficiency, stand-alone power unit based on a fuel cell stack with an integrated auto-thermal ethanol reformerVikas Jaggi and S. Jayanti Applied Energy, 2013, vol. 110, issue C, 295-303 Abstract: An integrated configuration of a fuel cell and an auto-thermal ethanol reformer has been studied conceptually for high temperature (HT) and low temperature (LT) polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) for a 5kW, stand-alone power unit. It is found that the integrated reformer–HT fuel cell system can operate in an auto-thermal mode using a Co–Fe/Zn catalyst to reform aqueous ethanol at 500°C to produce hydrogen with about 3% of CO which is tolerable for an HT-PEMFC operating at 200°C. A simulation model developed for the integrated reformer–HT-PEMFC system shows that significant amount of excess heat is available at 700°C. Using this excess heat, an integrated reformer–HT–LT-PEMFC power unit is designed which produces 15kW of electrical power at an overall efficiency of 41% and a thermal efficiency of 80%. Since it has an integrated aqueous ethanol reformer, the fuel for the power unit can be stored in liquid form which makes it ideal for stand-alone power unit applications. Keywords: Renewable energy; Ethanol; Steam reforming; PEM fuel cell; Simulation; Stand-alone power unit (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:110:y:2013:i:c:p:295-303 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2013.04.001 Access Statistics for this article Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier |
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