Open AccessA simulation study of a bioethanol‐solar‐reforming system for proton‐exchange membrane fuel cell home cogeneration system
Author(s) -
Obara Shin'ya
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
energy science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.638
H-Index - 29
ISSN - 2050-0505
DOI - 10.1002/ese3.39
Subject(s) - proton exchange membrane fuel cell , cogeneration , environmental science , hydrogen production , hydrogen , solar energy , steam reforming , nuclear engineering , waste management , materials science , biofuel , chemical engineering , chemistry , engineering , electricity generation , thermodynamics , fuel cells , electrical engineering , physics , power (physics) , organic chemistry
The energy supply characteristic of a proton‐exchange membrane fuel cell for houses is strongly influenced in a hydrogen supply unit. Therefore, a bioethanol reforming system ( FBSR ) with a sunlight heat source is developed as a potential fuel supply system for distributed fuel cells. However, the temperature distribution of a catalyst layer in the reactor is not stable under conditions of unstable solar radiation and unstable outside air temperature; as a result, it is thought that the inversion ratio (the percentage of hydrogen obtained from ethanol) of a reforming reaction will decrease. In this paper, heat transmission analysis was used in the catalyst layer of the reformer of FBSR , and the fundamental performance of FBSR was investigated. Fluctuations of the solar insolation over a short period of time affect the hydrogen‐generating rate of FBSR . Moreover, the amount of hydrogen production of FBSR was simulated using meteorological data from a day in March and a day in August in a cold region (Sapporo in Japan). In this research, the relation between the collected area of a solar collector and the energy supply to an individual house was obtained.