Development of the adiabatic reformer to process No. 2 fuel oil and coal-derived liquid fuels

Technical Report · Sun Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1981

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6879281· OSTI ID:6879281

Houghtby, W. E.; Buswell, R. F.; Bett, J. A.S.; Lesieur, R. R.; Meyer, A. P.; Preston, J. L.; Setzer, H. J.

Fuel cell power plants may be required to use coal derived liquids or heavy petroleum distillates as fuels. The objective of this program is to develop the adiabatic reformer to process the heavier fuels. Testing was conducted primarily in a 2 inch diameter, bench scale reactor. First, the configuration of the nozzle in which fuel, steam and air were mixed before entering the catalyst bed was optimized. Next, holding the nozzle geometry constant the effect of variation of the catalyst was studied. A bench scale reactor incorporating the optimized nozzle and improved catalysts ran stably for 450 hours. The performance met the goals for a 4.8 MW phosphoric acid fuel cell power plant at a 9300 Btu/kWh heat rate for all conditions except operating pressure which was 45 psia. Two pilot scale, 6-inch diameter adibatic reformers were built, each with a fuel-air mixing nozzle scaled-up from the best configuration identified in the bench scale reactors. The performance of the bench and pilot scale reactors (both filled with commercial nickel catalyst) agreed within a nominal scatter which defined the ability to scale-up the design. Brief tests in the optimized bench scale reactor gave an assessment of the capability of the adiabatic reformer to process coal-derived liquid fuels. Systems studies evaluated the performance of alternate fuel processors, the hybrid, cyclic and thermal steam reformers relative to the performance of the optimized adiabatic reformer. Results are presented and discussed. (WHK)

• Research Organization: United Technologies Corp., South Windsor, CT (USA). Power Systems Div.
• OSTI ID: 6879281
• Report Number(s): EPRI-EM-1701
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

08 HYDROGEN
080103 -- Hydrogen-- Production-- Steam Reformer Processes
30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
300503* -- Fuel Cells-- Materials
Components
& Auxiliaries
ACID ELECTROLYTE FUEL CELLS
AUTOTHERMAL REFORMER PROCESSES
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
CATALYSTS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CHEMICAL REACTORS
COAL FUEL CELLS
COAL LIQUIDS
COST
DESIGN
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
DISTILLATES
EFFICIENCY
ELECTROCHEMICAL CELLS
ELEMENTS
ENERGY SOURCES
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL CELL POWER PLANTS
FUEL CELLS
FUEL OILS
FUEL SYSTEMS
FUELS
GAS GENERATORS
HYDROCARBON FUEL CELLS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN GENERATORS
HYDROGEN PRODUCTION
INORGANIC ACIDS
LIQUID FUELS
LIQUIDS
METALS
NICKEL
NONMETALS
NOZZLES
OILS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PERFORMANCE TESTING
PETROLEUM
PETROLEUM DISTILLATES
PETROLEUM FRACTIONS
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
PHOSPHORIC ACID
POWER PLANTS
REFORMER PROCESSES
SULFUR
SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
TESTING
THERMODYNAMICS
TRANSITION ELEMENTS