Fuel composition effects on transportation fuel cell reforming

Short chained aliphatic hydrocarbons tend to have favorable light-off and reforming characteristics for catalytic autothermal reforming compared with longer-chained and aromatic components. Oxygenated hydrocarbons have lower light-off requirements than do pure hydrocarbons. Gas phase oxidation favors higher cetane # fuels, which tend to be longer chained hydrocarbons. Energy consumption during the start-up process shows a large fuel effect. Methanol and dimethylether (DME) show lower start-up energy demands for the fuel processor start-up than do high temperature reforming hydrocarbon fuels such as methane, gasoline and ethanol. Aromatics and longer chained hydrocarbons show a higher tendency for carbon formation, increasing the amount of carbon formed during the light-off phase while the addition of oxygenates tends to lower the carbon formed during the start-up process.