Distributed hydrogen production from ethanol in a microfuel processor: Issues and challenges

In the contemporary era of looming energy crunch, hydrogen fuel, obtained from ethanol, is a potentially strong contender as an energy carrier, based on a renewable source. Moreover, acknowledging the critical importance of distributed power devices and systems on one hand and the importance of microscale engineering on the other, we envisage developing an ethanol-based distributed hydrogen production device of the order of 1 kW using steam reforming of ethanol (SRE). In this paper, the key issues related to this microscale distributed hydrogen production strategy are discussed in view of its potential application for polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells. The design challenges and issues related to various essential micro-devices, viz., the pre-heater, fuel reformer, water gas shift (WGS) reactor, carbon monoxide preferential oxidation (CO PrOX), required for efficient production of H2 with very low concentration of CO contamination, are discussed. Various production schemes are carefully evaluated for the purpose. Need for integration of micro-devices is emphasized to obtain a compact fuel processor system.