Steam reformer/burner integration and analysis for an indirect methanol fuel cell vehicle

Fuel cell vehicles powered using hydrogen/air fuel cells have received a lot of attention recently as possible alternatives to internal combustion engines. However, the combined problems of on-board hydrogen storage and the lack of hydrogen infrastructure represent major impediments to their wide-scale adoption as replacements for IC engine vehicles. On-board fuel processors that generate hydrogen from on-board liquid methanol (and other hydrocarbons) has been proposed as possible alternative sources of hydrogen needed by the fuel cell. This paper discusses the impact of proper thermal integration between two major components of the fuel processor (reformer and burner) on the dynamic operation of an on-board fuel processor for a fuel cell vehicle. The fuel processor uses the steam reformation of methanol to produce the requisite hydrogen. Since the steam reformation is an endothermic process, the thermal energy required is supplied by a catalytic burner. During dynamic operation of the fuel cell vehicle, the dynamics of the fuel processor become very critical and these dynamics are very strongly influenced by the extent of thermal integration between the reformer and the burner. In order to study these dynamics, the authors developed a fuel processor model in Matlab/Simulink modeling environment.