Self-sustained operation and durability testing of a 300 W-class micro-structured LPG fuel processor

A miniaturized fuel processor for LPG has been developed and put into operation as compact hydrogen supply system for low power applications. The fuel processor consists of an integrated micro-structured evaporator and a micro-structured reformer both integrated with micro-structured catalytic burners, heat exchangers, and a micro-structured water–gas shift (WGS) stage. In the current paper, performance data of a coupled LPG steam reformer/catalytic burner are presented, which has been running stably over 1060 h with repeated start-up and shut-down cycles. On top of that, some performance data of complete LPG fuel processors will be shown, which have been operated up to 3500 h in combination with high temperature PEM fuel cell stacks. These fuel processing systems are capable to convert LPG with a nominal hydrogen production rate of 0.263 Nm3 h−1. It could be demonstrated, that the micro-structured devices are not only compact but show also high reliability and durability.

Research highlights
► Several LPG fuel processors were operated between 1000 h and 3500 h.
► Complete conversion of propane was observed for all operating conditions.
► During all experiments a good mechanical stability was observed as well.
► Fifty fuel processors have been fabricated and tested in field trials until 2009.