Autothermal reforming of n-dodecane and desulfurized Jet-A fuel for producing hydrogen-rich syngas

•Autothermal reforming of Jet-A fuel is experimentally investigated.•NiO–Rh based catalysts with promoters of Ce, K, and La were used in reformer.•Effect of steam/carbon and oxygen/carbon ratios, and temperatures were studied.•Hydrogen and COx selectivity, and energy conversion efficiency were obtained.

Catalytic reforming is a technology to produce hydrogen and syngas from heavy hydrocarbon fuels in order to supply hydrogen to fuel cells. A lab-scale 2.5 kWt autothermal reforming (ATR) system with a specially designed reformer and combined analysis of balance-of-plant was studied and tested in the present study. NiO–Rh based bimetallic catalysts with promoters of Ce, K, and La were used in the reformer. The performance of the reformer was studied by checking the hydrogen selectivity, COx selectivity, and energy conversion efficiency at various operating temperatures, steam to carbon ratios, oxygen to carbon ratios, and reactants' inlet temperatures. The experimental work firstly tested n-dodecane as the surrogate of Jet-A fuel to optimize operating conditions. After that, desulfurized commercial Jet-A fuel was tested at the optimized operating conditions. The design of the reformer and the catalyst are recommended for high performance Jet-A fuel reforming and hydrogen-rich syngas production.