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Producing H 2 ‐rich gas from simulated biogas and applying the gas to a 50w PEFC stack
Author(s) -
Xu Guangwen,
Chen Xin,
Honda Kazunori,
Zhang ZhanGuo
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.10197
Subject(s) - biogas , hydrogen , stack (abstract data type) , fuel gas , chemistry , industrial gas , waste management , hydrogen sulfide , power to gas , syngas , chemical engineering , electrolyte , organic chemistry , engineering , mechanical engineering , gas turbines , electrode , sulfur , computer science , electrolysis , combustion , programming language
Since 2000, a technical program was developed to convert biogas into hydrogen‐rich gas, and to demonstrate the possibility of applying the acquired hydrogenous gas to the polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC). The gas conversion was accomplished in two steps, successively, in a desulfurizer that removes the hydrogen sulfide in biogas and in a hydrogen‐rich gas producer that converts the desulfurized biogas into hydrogen‐rich gas containing CO less than the PEFC‐tolerable value of 10 ppm. The gas producer consisted of four catalytic reactors, in succession, a steam reformer, two water‐gas‐shift reactors, and a selective CO oxidizer. Determining the necessary conditions for all such reactors and the applicability of the produced hydrogen‐rich gas to a 50‐watt model PEFC stack is examined. Experiments were conducted using clean model biogas over commercial catalysts. A successful production of the PEFC‐usable hydrogen‐rich gas was fulfilled, and the gas showed a composition of about 70 vol. % H 2 , 30 vol. % CO 2 , and residual CH 4 (<1.0 vol. %). Directly applying the gas to the downstream model PEFC stack generated stable powers higher than 50 watts, provided the equivalent hydrogen feed was sufficient. Nonetheless, the CO 2 in the gas obviously reduced the stack performance. Compared to the case running on pure hydrogen, the stack exhibited not only a lower voltage (power) at a given current, but also a smaller limit current that restricts the maximal output from the stack at each specified hydrogen feed rate. © 2004 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 50: 2467–2480, 2004