NSF Award
9632781
*** 96-32781 Wojtowicz This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project explores the possibility of employing currently used liquid fuels in fuel-cell vehicles. It is neither convenient nor safe to carry hydrogen on board commercial trucks, buses, or other types of vehicles. The wide use of fuel cells will require conversion of standard fuels into hydrogen. The use of reformers for generation of hydrogen from light hydrocarbons is a standard industrial practice, but this technique cannot be directly used for heavy fuels. In Phase 1, the technical and economic feasibility of using an on-board pyrolysis unit to preprocess diesel fuel for the reformer was demonstrated. The results from the Phase I research suggest a strong possibility of achieving diesel reforming to H2 in a single reactor. The main objective of the Phase II project is to design, construct, and test a diesel preprocessor compatible with a 16 kW fuel cell. This objective will be accomplished in four tasks: (1) Laboratory study on the pyrolysis unit (more extensive testing of diesel fuels; testing of several catalysts; performance optimization; control of sulfur and CO emissions); (2) Design, construction and testing of a prototype fuel preprocessor compatible with a 10 kW fuel cell, (3) Simulation of the diesel-processor/fuel-cell system; (4) System assessment. The commercial applications for fuel cells are numerous and they include fuel-cell buses, automobiles, tractor-trailers, and trains. The availability of the proposed preprocessing unit would allow for these vehicles to be powered by readily available liquid fuels. This would greatly accelerate the introduction of this technology into mass transit and help reduce air pollution in urban centers (particulates, NO., CO, and unburned hydrocarbons). ***
