A Self-Sustained, Complete and Miniaturized Methanol Fuel Processor for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

A self-sustained, complete and miniaturized methanol fuel processor has been developed based on modular integration and microreactor technology. The fuel processor is comprised of one methanol oxidative reformer, one methanol combustor and one two-stage CO preferential oxidation unit. Microchannel heat exchanger is employed to recover heat from hot stream, miniaturize system size and thus achieve high energy utilization efficiency. By optimized thermal management and proper operation parameter control, the fuel processor can start up in 10 min at room temperature without external heating. A self-sustained state is achieved with H-2 production rate of 0.99 Nm(3) h(-1) and extremely low CO content below 25 ppm. This amount of H-2 is sufficient to supply a 1 kW(e) proton exchange membrane fuel cell. The corresponding thermal efficiency of whole processor is higher than 86%. The size and weight of the assembled reactors integrated with microchannel heat exchangers are 1.4 L and 5.3 kg, respectively, demonstrating a very compact construction of the fuel processor. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.