Development of the adiabatic reformer to process No. 2 fuel oil and coal-derived liquid fuels

Fuel cell power plants may be required to use coal derived liquids or heavy petroleum distillates as fuels. The objective of this program is to develop the adiabatic reformer to process the heavier fuels. Testing was conducted primarily in a 2 inch diameter, bench scale reactor. First, the configuration of the nozzle in which fuel, steam and air were mixed before entering the catalyst bed was optimized. Next, holding the nozzle geometry constant the effect of variation of the catalyst was studied. A bench scale reactor incorporating the optimized nozzle and improved catalysts ran stably for 450 hours. The performance met the goals for a 4.8 MW phosphoric acid fuel cell power plant at a 9300 Btu/kWh heat rate for all conditions except operating pressure which was 45 psia. Two pilot scale, 6-inch diameter adibatic reformers were built, each with a fuel-air mixing nozzle scaled-up from the best configuration identified in the bench scale reactors. The performance of the bench and pilot scale reactors (both filled with commercial nickel catalyst) agreed within a nominal scatter which defined the ability to scale-up the design. Brief tests in the optimized bench scale reactor gave an assessment of the capability of the adiabatic reformer to process coal-derived liquid fuels. Systems studies evaluated the performance of alternate fuel processors, the hybrid, cyclic and thermal steam reformers relative to the performance of the optimized adiabatic reformer. Results are presented and discussed. (WHK)