Design and operation of a compact microchannel 5 kWel,net methanol steam reformer with novel Pt/In2O3 catalyst for fuel cell applications

A methanol reformer was designed, built and tested, which allows hydrogen production for high temperature PEM fuel cells for mobile applications applying micro-structured plate heat-exchanger technology and a novel, highly active catalyst formulation for oxidative steam reforming of methanol at temperatures exceeding 300 °C. It is one of the first micro-structured methanol reformers with integrated anode off-gas combustion, which works in the kW scale. The reformer was operated under conditions of start-up, steady state and under dynamic conditions, in connection with a 1 kW high temperature PEM fuel cell and finally integrated into a fuel processor, which contained an external evaporator and a heat-exchanger for super-heating the reformer feed. The thermal power of the hydrogen produced by the reformer amounted to 20 kWthermal, which corresponds to 6.5 kWel of a fuel cell at 40% efficiency and 80% hydrogen utilization.