Monday, March 31, 2008 - 11:50 AM

Catalytic WGS Multi-Function Membrane Reactor

Peter R. Bossard, Power & Energy, Inc. and Jacques Mettes, Power & Energy, Inc.

Power+Energy’s compact, scalable catalytic water-gas shift (WGS) multi-function membrane reactor (MFMR) produces high hydrogen flux rates when operated at high temperatures. Power+Energy’s MFMR also operates at full capacity without the need for an added WGS catalyst, delivering purity levels greater than 99.99999%. Additionally, the MFMR features a high degree of sulfur immunity, enabling applications such as diesel fuel conversion. This is significant because conventional WGS catalysts must overcome both coking and sulfur contamination in order to play a useful role in the energy-efficient conversion of traditional liquid fuel to pure hydrogen on demand – Power+Energy has accomplished both of these tasks.

Data is presented quantifying the WGS conversion efficiency, hydrogen flux rates, and sulfur immunity of this micro-channel membrane reactor. Efficacy of this system has been demonstrated using an ethanol/steam conversion process that was consistently operated over a two-month test period. The reformer outlet was directly fed into the membrane reactor in this demonstrated process, thus avoiding the use of a separate WGS reactor.

A number of DOE studies have referred to the advantages of a membrane reactor that integrates the WGS reaction, hydrogen separation, and purification into a single device. Membrane reactors that combine these processes offer a significant leap forward in simplicity, efficiency, and reduced cost of hydrogen production: a recent DOE report evaluating the impact of combining these processes on onboard fuel reforming shows that doing so can achieve all major necessary criteria, such as power density and startup time.

Power+Energy, a manufacturer of palladium-based hydrogen purifiers, is under contract to deliver a 50kW(e) multi-function membrane reactor to the Navy in 2008.

P+E acknowledges support for this project under a BAA contract from the Office of Naval Research, Ships and Engineering Systems Division, Code 331, Arlington, VA and guidance from NAVSEA, Energy Conversion Section, Code 9823, Philadelphia, PA.


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