Development of Methane Steam Reformer for Domestic Fuel Cell by using Electro-Thermal Alumite Catalyst

Abstract

The domestic fuel is respected to have the advantages, such as reliability, high efficiency and reduced plant installation, operation and maintenance cost. This paper presents the development of quick start-up domestic fuel cell utilizing a novel alumite catalyst, i.e. electro-thermal catalyst, with the advantages of high heat resistance, conductivity and special shape flexibility. Natural gas is employed in the reforming system, for its high concentration of methane. The catalyst temperature elevation result shows that it is possible to control the surface temperature elevation by 100°C/sec or higher, when the current flows through the catalyst. Since for the electro-thermal catalyst's such interesting points, it is expected that using the catalyst can give a very quick supplying of energy and load following operation for domestic fuel cell. It also has been confirmed that the catalyst shown a considerable activity for both steam reforming reaction and combustion reaction of methane. Therefore, we suggest a new kind heat-exchange reformer, where the methane combustion heat provide the need of the methane reforming, which is expected to have a high start up and efficiency.