Hydrogen production by coal plasma gasification for fuel cell technology

Coal gasification in steam and air atmosphere under arc plasma conditions has been investigated with Podmoskovnyi brown coal, Kuuchekinski bituminous coal and Canadian petrocoke. It was found that for those coals the gasification degree to synthesis gas were 92.3%, 95.8 and 78.6% correspondingly. The amount of produced syngas was 30–40% higher in steam than in air gasification of the coal.The reduction of the carbon monoxide content in the hydrogen-rich reformate gas for low-temperature fuel cell applications normally involves high- and low-temperature water gas shift reactors followed by selective oxidation of residual carbon monoxide. It is shown that the carbon monoxide content can be reduced in one single reactor, which is based on an iron redox cycle. During the reduction phase of the cycle, the raw gas mixture of H2H2 and CO reduces a Fe3O4–CeO2–ZrO2Fe3O4–CeO2–ZrO2 sample, while during the oxidation phase steam re-oxidizes the iron and simultaneously hydrogen is being produced. The integration of the redox iron process with a coal plasma gasification technology in future allows the production of COxCOx-free hydrogen.