Comparison of high-temperature and low-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell systems with glycerol reforming process for stationary applications

• PEMFC systems with a glycerol steam reformer for stationary application are studied.
• Performance of HT-PEMFC and LT-PEMFC systems is compared.
• HT-PEMFC system shows good performance over LT-PEMFC system at a high current density.
• HT-PEMFC system with water gas shift reactor shows the highest system efficiency.
• Heat integration can improve the efficiency of HT-PEMFC system.

A high-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) has a major advantage over a low-temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cell (LT-PEMFC) demonstrated by a tolerance to a higher CO content in the hydrogen feed and thus a simpler fuel processing. In this study, a direct comparison between the performance of HT-PEMFC and LT-PEMFC systems integrated with a glycerol steam reformer with and without a water gas shift reactor is shown. Under pure hydrogen operation, the LT-PEMFC performance is superior to the HT-PEMFC. However, the HT-PEMFC system shows good performance over the LT-PEMFC system when operated under high current density and high pressure (3 atm) and using the reformate gas derived from the glycerol processor as fuel. At high current density, the high concentration of CO is the major limitation for the operation of HT-PEMFC system without water gas shift reactor, whereas the LT-PEMFC suffers from CO poisoning and restricted oxygen mass transport. Considering the system efficiency with co-heat and power generation, the HT-PEMFC system with water gas shift reactor shows the highest overall system efficiency (approximately 60%) and therefore one of the most suitable technologies for stationary applications.