Chemical looping induced CH3OH–H2-PEMFC scheme for fuel cell vehicle: Parameter optimization and feasibility analysis

Abstract

In this work, a hybrid system combined with chemical looping methanol reformer (CL-reformer) and high-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) is proposed for the vehicle power supply. The Cu-based chemical looping induced methanol reforming is introduced to optimize the energy supply scheme of fuel cell vehicles. The start-up and working stages of the integrated system are comprehensively considered and simulated via the ASPEN Plus software. In start-up stage, the lattice oxygen participates the oxidative steam reforming of methanol, achieving auto-thermal hydrogen generation and Cu-based oxygen carrier (OC) reduction (Cu2+→Cu0), and the reduced OC can be regenerated by the air oxidation (Cu0→Cu2+); In working stage, the reduced OC (Cu0) plays the role of catalyzing methanol conversion, and the heat generated from HT-PEMFC stack can be recovered by the methanol reforming module. The effects of CL-reformer conditions on the methanol reformate quality and the performance of HT-PEMFC stack are investigated. Furthermore, the feasibility of maintaining thermally neutral of the integrated system is discussed. Simulation results indicate that the CL-reformer-HT-PEMFC system can achieve auto-thermal operation, in which the system electrical efficiencies of 21.6%–26.7% and 47.7% can be obtained at start-up and working stages, respectively.