50 kW proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell, under the sponsorship of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, New Delhi, India. The work also includes development of indigenous catalyst for the steam reformation of methanol.

            Preliminarily, a series of catalysts (CuO/ZnO/Al₂O₃) were prepared and characterized by using  various techniques like TPR, XRD, SEM-EDAX, DTA/TGA and BET surface area. These systems were evaluated in 2 gm level glass reactor for activity, stability and selectivity in the development of a methanol steam reforming catalyst. The promising catalysts which gave better conversion with the desirable characteristics are subjected to accelerated ageing studies. This data has been presented in this paper.

These selected catalysts are further evaluated at high pressure (5 bar) in a reactor of 20 gm level, provided with automated controls for flow, pressure and temperature & a data logging system. Necessary data has been generated for the design of a 10 kWe methanol reforming system . This data has also been presented. 

            Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, India has developed a novel  reforming reactor(A patent has been filed on the development of this reactor). This reactor is a triple walled, double jacketed one, made of SS-304 material. The anode effluent gases from the fuel cell are catalytically burnt in the outer jacket and the heat thus generated is transferred to the reactor bed through the inner shell. A special configuration of the reactor has been designed, so as to maintain nearly isothermal conditions within the bed, throughout the reactor.  The performance of the fuel processor is strongly influenced by the extent of thermal integration. The hydrogen from the fuel cell anode off gas is mixed with air and catalytically combusted to generate heat for heating the feed and for the reforming reaction. 

           PEM Fuel Cell cannot tolerate more than 10 ppm of CO, beyond which electrode catalyst gets poisoned. In the reforming reaction, CO (~ 1%) is also produced along with H₂ and CO₂, therefore , removal of CO from reformate reaction is essential. A two stage preferential oxidation reactors have been designed for the removal of the CO.

           The complete 10 kWe reforming system has been designed, fabricated and commissioned. A brief description of this has been presented in the paper. This 10 kWe system was operated to establish the system endurance. The catalyst developed by IICT was tested for producing sufficient quantity of hydrogen with desirable quality (containing minimal of CO ~ 10 ppm) to generate 10 kW electric energy in the PEM Fuel Cell.  The data generated while operating the unit has been presented.

            Using the above generated data a 50 kWe reformer has been designed, fabricated and commissioned. A brief description of this system has also been presented.

            It is proposed to procure a 10 kW PEM Fuel Cell and integrate with the              10 kWe and 50 kWe reformers for setting up a technology demonstration unit at our institute.