JOULE JOR3-CT97-0174 Bioethanol as fuel for fuel cell vehicles and small-scale stationary power production

Contacts




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Biological Conversion : Electricity : JOULE/THERMIE Programme : Liquid Biofuels and Biogas

	Type of Project	Shared Cost
	Contract No	JOR3-CT97-0174
	EC Contribution	312,000 ECU
	Start Date	01/12/97
	Duration	30 Months

Bioethanol as fuel for fuel cell vehicles and small-scale stationary power production

Objectives

The main objective of the project is to prove the feasibility of the electricity generation by a fuel cell with bioethanol as a fuel. For this purpose, the conversion of ethanol to a hydrogen rich gas mixture and the removal of impurities by CO-shift reaction and a PSA-process will be experimentally verified.

Technical Approach

Steam reforming is a well-known process for conversion of carbon containing fuels into a gas mixture containing mainly hydrogen, CO₂ and CO. This catalytic conversion process is mature for natural gas in large plants and is developed for methanol for mobile application. Bioethanol will be investigated as a CO₂-neutral alternative to methanol. The low temperature membrane fuel cell has been selected for the possible mobile application. This fuel cell requires a high gas purity, state-of-the-art anode catalysts can only tolerate CO-levels in the range of several 10's of ppm. Therefore, a gas purification step must be added to the reformer. The first step to reduce CO-levels is the well-known CO-shift reaction, resulting at optimal operation conditions in CO levels below 1 vol%. As fine purification, a PSA process is chosen enabling very low CO levels to be reached. . Usually, the elevated operation pressure of the PSA-process is judged to be disadvantageous, but liquid fuels can be easily compressed and the reforming and shift reactors can be designed for operation at elevated pressure. But as high pressure levels shift the reforming equilibrium towards lower conversion rates, one main task of the project will be to investigate the operation of the complete process chain at an elevated and optimised pressure level. Basic investigations in lab scale reactors and the subsequent design and construction of experimental reactors in the kW power range will be carried out.

Expected Results

It is expected to demonstrate the feasibility of the technical process and to prove, that this concept can compete with and is advantageous compared to conventional energy conversion systems. The exploitation of the results includes investigations of the options for future development of compact systems for mobile application and the opportunities to introduce it into the stationary energy market.

Contacts

Coordinator

• Angelika HEINZEL / Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Forderungd Angewandten Forschung e.V. / GERMANY

Participant

• Giuseppe FAITA / De Nora SpA ITALY
• Konstantin LEDJEFF / Universitat Gesamthochschile Duisburg Institute of Energy Technology / GERMANY