Monday, March 31, 2008 - 11:50 AM
Progress in Development and Commercialization of Base-Facilitated Reforming Technology
Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) has developed a proprietary Base-Facilitated Reforming (BFR) technology with significant advantages over conventional steam reforming. One advantage of BFR is a water gas shift (WGS) and pressure swing absorption (PSA) units are not needed, allowing a more simplified and compact reactor design with lower capital cost. In addition, operating temperatures and heat requirements in the BFR process are lower than conventional steam reforming technology resulting in lower operating cost. Significant advancement in the development of this new technology was achieved at ECD in the last two years. We have developed and demonstrated BFR prototype reactors to reform methanol and ethanol fuels using inexpensive catalysts. Small batch and continuous flow reactors produce high purity hydrogen with a rate of 100 grams a day running at temperatures as low as 130¢ªC-140¢ªC. Since solid carbonate is the reaction product along with high purity hydrogen gas, no CO2 is produced during this process. Scale up of the reactors for larger hydrogen production rates is straightforward. Economic analysis using the DOE H2A cost model projects a hydrogen production cost of $2.50/kg H2 and $3.60/kg H2 for methanol and ethanol fuel respectively at a rate of production of 1,500 kg/day, which compares well against the cost of hydrogen production using steam reforming. Compact reactors and fast start-up time make this process especially suitable for on-site distributive hydrogen applications. We have shown the technology can be used with a variety of different fuels. Hydrogen cost is significantly dependent on the feedstock used. Experimentation at ECD has shown that different solid biomass feedstock can be directly reformed to high purity hydrogen using the BFR technology with further economic benefits. Use of biomass as starting fuel lowers the hydrogen production cost to 1.50/kg H2. ECD is in the process of constructing a pilot reactor to demonstrate technological and economic benefits of a biomass BFR reactor as part of a plan to further develop this reactor for high volume commercialization. In this paper we will discuss the technological and economic benefits of BFR reforming technology and issues highlighted via the testing of methanol and ethanol prototype reformers. Advancement in the development of a biomass pilot reactor and commercialization plans will also be discussed.
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