Effectiveness of heat-integrated methanol steam reformer and polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell stack systems for portable applications

Abstract

Efficiently combining proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack with methanol steam reformer (MSR) into a small portable system is still quite a topical issue. Using methanol as a fuel in PEMFC stack includes a series of chemical processes where each proceeds at a unique temperature. In a combined MSR–PEMFC-stack system with integrated auxiliary fuel processors (vaporizer, catalytic combustor, etc.) the processes are both endothermic and exothermic hence their proper thermal integration can help raising the system efficiency. A concept of such fully integrated and compact system is proposed in this study. Three separate systems are designed based on different PEMFC stacks and MSR. Low-temperature (LT) and conventional high-temperature (cHT) PEMFC stack characteristics are based on available data from suppliers. Also, a novel high-temperature (nHT) PEMFC stack is proposed because its operating temperature coincides with that of MSR. A comparative study of modelled systems is performed using a mass and energy balances zero-dimensional model, which is interdependently coupled to a physical model based on finite element method (FEM). The results indicate that a system with nHT PEMFC stack is feasible and has the potential to reach higher system efficiencies than systems with LT or cHT PEMFC stacks.