Analysis of heptane autothermal reformer to generate hydrogen for fuel cell applications

In this paper, reaction engineering principles are utilized to analyze process conditions for producing sufficient hydrogen in a heptane autothermal reformer for generating 1 kW of power in a fuel cell. It is shown that operating the reformer adiabatically results in a sharp decrease in temperature due to endothermic reactions, which results in low conversion of heptane. For this reason, a heating jacket is added to the reformer where heptane is combusted to provide heat for the endothermic reactions. It is observed that when the reactor is operated non-isothermally, it is possible to get complete conversion of heptane and produce sufficient hydrogen to generate 1 kW of power via a fuel cell.