• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.731-734
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• 2009

KIER has been developed a compact and highly efficient fuel processor which is one of the key component of the residential PEM fuel cells system. The fuel processor uses methane steam reforming to convert natural gas to a mixture of water, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and unreacted methane. Then carbon monoxide is converted to carbon dioxide in water-gas-shift reactor and preferential oxidation reactor. A start-up time of the fuel processor is about 1h and CO concentration among the final product is maintained less than 5 vol. ppm. To achieve high thermal efficiency of 80% on a LHV basis, an optimal thermal network was designed. Internal heat exchange of the fuel processor is so efficient that the temperature of the reformed gas and the flue gas at the exit of the fuel processor remains less than $100^{\circ}C$. A compact design considering a mixing and distribution of the feed was applied to reduce the reactor volume. The current volume of the fuel processor is 17L with insulation.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.123.2-123.2
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• 2010

Fuel Cell cogeneration system is a promising technology for generating electricity and heat with high efficiency of low pollutant emission. We have been developed 5kW class fuel cell cogeneration system for commercial and residential application. The fuel processor is a crucial part of producing hydrogen from the fossil fuels such as LNG and LPG. The 5kW class high efficiency fuel processor consists of steam reformer, CO shift converter, CO preferential oxidation(PrOx) reactor, burner and heat exchanger. The one-stage CO shift converter process using a metal oxide catalyst was adopted. The efficiency of 5 kW class fuel processor shows 75% based on LHV. In addition, for the purpose of continuous operation with load fluctuations in the commercial system for residential use, load change of fuel processor was tested. Efficiency of 30%, 50%, 70% and 100% load shows 75%, 75%, 73% and 72%(LHV), respectively. Also, during the load change conditions, the product gas composition was stable and the outlet CO concentration was below 5 ppm. The Fuel processor operation was carried out in residential fuel cell cogeneration system with fuel cell stack under dynamic conditions. The 5kW class fuel processor have been evaluated for long-term durability and reliability test including with improvement in optimal operation logic.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.323-327
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• 2009

To extract hydrogen for stack, fuels such as LPG and LNG were reformed in the fuel processor, which is comprised of desulfurizer, reformer, shift converter, CO remover and steam generator. All elements of fuel processor are integrated in a single package. Highly active catalysts (desulfurizing adsorbent, reforming catalyst, CO shift catalyst, CO removal catalyst) and the various burners were developed and evaluated in this study. The performance of the developed catalysts and the commercial ones was similar. 1 kW, 5 kW class fuel processor systems using the developed catalyst and burner showed efficiency of 75 %(LHV, for LNG). The start-up time of the 1 kW class fuel processor was less than 50 minutes and its volume including insulation was about 30 l. The start-up time of 3 kW and 5 kW class fuel processors with the volume of 90 l and 150 l, respectively, was about 60 minutes. In the case of LPG fuel, efficiency, volume and start-up time of 1kW class fuel processor showed 73 %(LHV), < 60 l and < 60 min, respectively. Advanced fuel processor showed more highly efficiency and shorter start-up time due to the improvement of heat exchanger and operating method. 1 kW and 3 kW class fuel processors have been evaluated for reliability and durability including with on/off test of developed catalysts and burner.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.19-22
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• 2007

In this study, we investigated operating characteristics of natural gas fuel processor for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The fuel processor consists of a natural gas reformer, a water-gas shift reactor, a heat-exchanger and a burner, in which the overall integrated volume is exactly(exceptionally) small, namely, about 10L except outer insulation. The producted hydrogen is $1Nm^3/hr$ and the maximum thermal efficiency is ${\sim}76%$(low heating value) at full operating load. A compact and highly efficient $1Nm^3/hr$ class natural gas fuel processor was developed at UNISON is an advantage for application in residential PEMFCs co-generation systems.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.485-493
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• 2016

Recently submarine and unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) are equipped with a fuel cell system as an air independent propulsion system. Methanol fuel processor can efficiently supply the hydrogen to the fuel cell system to improve the ability to dive. This study investigated the optimal conditions of the methanol fuel processor that may be used in the closed environment. For this purpose, the numerical model based on Gibbs minimization equation was established for steam reformer and three exhaust gas burners. After simulating the characteristics of steam reformer according to the steam-to-carbon ratio (SCR) and the pressure change, the SCR condition was able to narrow down to 1.1 to 1.5. Considering water consumption and the amount of heat recovered from three burners, the optimum condition of the SCR can be determined to be 1.5. Nevertheless, the additional heat supply is required to satisfy the heat balance of the methanol fuel processor in the SCR=1.5. In other to obtain additional amount of heat, the combustion of methanol is better than the increased of SCR in terms of system design.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.36-44
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• 2017

The small commercial fuel cell is a new energy system that produces electricity and heat through electrochemical reaction between air and hydrogen. In Korea, hundreds of domestic small commercial fuel cell systems have been installed and operated every years and many parts in fuel cell systems depend on overseas products. KOGAS(Korea Gas Corporation) has developed the fuel processor which is an important part of fuel cell system and has evaluated the long-term durability. And KOGAS has evaluated domestic and overseas NG blower and fuel processor connected to NG blower. The fuel processor developed by KOGAS have maintained an efficiency of 76% and constant performance over 3,000 hours. The NG blower developed in Korea showed similar characteristics as overseas NG blower in the evaluation of power consumption according to rear pressure and outside temperature. The fuel processor module, fuel processor connected to BOP showed excellent performance.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.76-85
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• 2016

This study introduces the system layout and control strategy necessary to start and operate a fuel processor in a wide range of temperatures where a gasoline was selected as the fuel of fuel processor considering logistic support of Korea Army. The autothermal reformig(ATR) catalyst is heated to light-off temperature by combustion method in the initial stage. In order to ignite the gasoline and air mixture stably, the glow plug is installed after ATR catalyst. When the catalyst is increased to light-off temperature, the reformer is operated from initiation to steady state conditions as follows: Partial oxidation(POX) mode, partial ATR mode, full ATR mode. Finally the start-up and control strategy is validated by the operational test of gasoline fuel processor at low and room temperature. As a result the gasoline fuel processor is able to start-up within 40 min and to produce the reformate gas which has 37 ~ 42 vol.%(dry basis) of $H_2$ and 0.3 vol.% of CO.

• Carbon letters
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.303-307
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• 2008

The studies on integrated operation of fuel cell with fuel processor are very essential prior to its commercialization. In this study, Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) was operated with a fuel processor, which is mainly composed of two parts, methanol steam reforming reaction and preferential oxidation (PROX). In fuel processor, ICI 33-5 (CuO 50%, ZnO 33%, $Al_2O_3$ 8%, BET surface area: $66\;m^2g^{-1}$) catalyst and CuO-$CeO_2$ catalyst were used for methanol steam reforming, preferential oxidation (PROX) respectively. PEMFC was operated by hydrogen fuel generated from fuel processor. The resulting gas from PROX reactor is used to operate PEMFC equipped with our prepared anode and cathode catalyst. PtRu/C catalyst gives more tolerance to CO.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.225-229
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• 2005

We have designed micro-fuel processor system, which consists of a steam reforming area and a PROX(preferential oxidation) area. Micro-fuel processor system generates $H_2$ rich gas from a methanol. In our experiment, we have integrated micro-fuel processor system using low temperature cofired ceramics (LTCC) process because LTCC is superior to other materials principally due to their high thermal and chemical stability, simpler fabrication processes, and lower materials cost. Therefore, we have studied and integrated micro-fuel processor system containing embedded heaters, cavities, and 3D structures of micro-channel with LTCC. Also we have optimized the LTCC process.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.21-24
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• 2008

We have developed a $kW_e$ class liquid fuel based solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system. Our final target is to develop the 1 $kW_e$ diesel based SOFC system for residential power generator(RPG). In this study, we present the conceptual design of SOFC system. System is composed of hot-box and cold-box. Planar typed SOFC stack, heat exchanger, combustor for stack tail gas, and fuel processor, such as fuel reformer and desulfurizer, are contained in the hot-box. And several balance of plants(BOP), such as fuel suppliers and controller, are contained in the cold-box. Before the SOFC system fabrication, we have already operated the selfsustaining fuel processor, and heat exchange of all heat-related components is simulated using ASPEN HYSYS, because heat maintenance and management in hot-box are important for stable operation of SOFC system. The self-sustained fuel processor was successfully operated for about 250 hours, and heat exchange is enough to operate the SOFC system.