Low-temperature Shift Reaction Research Articles

Municipal solid waste gasification to produce hydrogen: Integrated simulation model and performance analysis

The municipal solid waste gasification model integrated with high- and low-temperature shift reactors and hydrogen purification system has been developed through Aspen Plus. The performance analysis was done to study the impact of steam and air mix as gasification medium as well as the air alone as medium. For which, temperatures and ratio of steam to MSW were varied to explore impacts. Thus, the air and steam mix operating mediums give a greater yield of hydrogen. Also, the hydrogen production efficiency is maximum at 800°C. The ratio of steam to MSW (RSM) which favors the hydrogen yield lies in range of 0.7 to 0.8.

Hydrogen production via solid waste gasification with subsequent amine-based carbon dioxide removal using Aspen Plus

This simulation study presents the municipal solid waste gasification, along with a detailed design of CO2 capturing unit using monoethanolamine (solvent). The gasifier's operational parameters, such as pressure, temperature, and equivalence ratio, are chosen to optimize the gasified H2-enriched product stream. At optimal operational parameters, such as temperature (800 °C), pressure (1 bar), and equivalence ratio (0.2), a maximum H2 content of 27.9% could be attained. Following that, 39.5% H2 is found at the high-temperature shift reactor's exit, followed by 42.1% at the low-temperature shift reactor's output. It is observed that the absorber (16.5 m) and stripper (6 m) packing heights are required to capture 95% CO2 from the product effluent obtained after shift reactors, along with column diameters of 2.70 and 3.61 m, respectively. Hence, the proposed model can give vital information for large-scale gasifier and CO2 capture unit design, operation, and optimization with respect to different flue gases.

A Numerical Study of Hydrogen Production via High-temperature and Low-temperature Water-Gas Shift Reactors’ System: The Multi-Scale Modeling Approach and Simulation

The primary purpose of this study is to develop an advanced, and comprehensive multi-scale mathematical models of a packed bed reactors (PBRs) carrying out high and low temperature water-gas-shift reactions (WGSRs) for the hydrogen production. In industrial hydrogen generation applications, the water-gas-shift reactors are considered at high (called HTSR) and low (called LTSR) temperature stages with a cooling process between them. Therefore, detailed and advanced numerical studies on the HTSR and the LTSR in series are carried out to assess the overall performance of hydrogen production system. After completing a single-pellet, non-isothermal, steady-state simulation, we couple our model with a non-isothermal (adiabatic), steady-state packed-bed reactor model to form a hybrid multi-scale reactor model. The velocity, temperature and species’ concentration profiles along both the reactor length and the pellet radius are captured by using rigorously defined momentum, energy, and species transport models, accounting for the physical mechanisms involved in the system such as convection, conduction, and reaction-diffusion. The model’s equations are simultaneously solved for each domain: bulk gas domain and catalyst-pellet domain. The rigorous Maxwell-Stefan Model is applied on the reactor scale to account mass diffusion fluxes. On the other hand, Dusty Gas Model is considered to describe mass diffusion fluxes for the single pellet scale. Studies that include a broad range of the operating conditions and design parameters are carried out in this paper, in order to investigate the upper and lower limit conditions’ effects on the results.

Experimental and theoretical analysis of a natural gas fuel processor

In this study, a natural gas fuel processor was experimentally and theoretically investigated. The constructed 2.0 kWth fuel processor is suitable for a residential-scale high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell. The system consists of an autothermal reformer; gas clean-up units, namely high and low-temperature water-gas shift reactors; and utilities including feeding unit, burner, evaporator and heat exchangers. Commercial monolith catalysts were used in the reactors. The simulation was carried out by using ASPEN HYSYS program. A validated kinetic model and adiabatic equilibrium model were both presented and compared with experimental data. The nominal operating conditions which were determined by the kinetic model were the steam-to-carbon ratio of 3.0, the oxygen-to-carbon ratio of 0.5 and the inlet temperatures of 450 °C for autothermal reformer, 400 °C for high-temperature water-gas shift reactor and 310 °C for low-temperature water-gas shift reactor. Experimental results at the nominal condition showed that the performance criteria of the hydrogen yield, the fuel conversion and the efficiency were 2.53, 93.5% and 82.3% (higher heating value-HHV), respectively. The validated kinetic model was further used for the determination of 2–10kWthermal fuel processor efficiency which was increasing linearly up-to 86.3% (HHV).

Multi-scale model based design of membrane reactor/separator processes for intensified hydrogen production through the water gas shift reaction

This work aims to first quantify the impact of various diffusion models (Maxwell-Stefan, Wilke, Dusty-Gas) on the predictions of a multi-scale membrane reactor/separator mathematical model, and to then demonstrate this model's use for the design and process intensification of membrane reactor/separator systems for hydrogen production. This multi-scale model captures velocity, temperature and species' concentration profiles along the catalyst pellet's radial direction, and along the reactor's axial direction, by solving the momentum, energy, and species transport equations, accounting for convection, conduction, reaction, and diffusion mechanisms. In the first part of work, the effect of pellet-scale design parameters (mean pore diameter, volumetric porosity, tortuosity factor, etc.) and various species' flux models on the model predictions is studied. In the second part, the study focuses on the comparison, in terms of their process intensification characteristics, of various hydrogen production processes. These include a conventional high-temperature shift reactor (HTSR)/low-temperature shift reactor (LTSR) sequence, a novel HTSR/membrane separator (MS)/LTSR/MS sequence, and a process that involves low-temperature shift membrane reactors-LTSMR in a series.

The implications of choice between sour and sweet shift on process design and operation of an IGCC power plant integrated with a dual-stage selexol unit

In this study, it was sought to design and evaluate two process configurations of an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) integrated with a dual-stage Selexol unit in which they differ in that one IGCC is configured with sour shift and the other is based on sweet shift. Incorporating water gas shift reactors consuming vast amount of shift steam into an IGCC involves significant alternations to the associated steam cycle, in addition to simply changing the location of the H2S removal step around the shift reactors. It turned out that the sweet shift case would require approximately 4.6 times more shift steam than the sour shift case, as the syngas after H2S removal did not have much steam in it. However, the energy penalties incurred by the carbon capture integration were estimated almost identical regardless of the choice between the sour and sweet shift. This is because the sour shift case would also undergo considerable reduction in power generation at steam cycle due to water quenching. In both shift cases, the high and low temperature shift reactors were sized using the reaction rate models reported in literature.

The Implication of the Choice between Sour and Sweet Shift on Process Design and Operation of an IGCC Power Plant Integrated with a Dual-Stage Selexol Process

In this study, it was sought to design and evaluate two different process configurations of an IGCC integrated with a dual stage Selexol unit where they differ in that one is based on sour shift and the other is sweet shift (Fig. 1). Depending on the choice of the two water-gas shift reactors, the process configuration undergoes significant changes in steam cycle, syngas cooling and Selexol process, apart from the location of the H2S removal step around the shift reactor. Integrating an IGCC with a pre-combustion capture involves a significant energy penalty. The energy penalty associated with carbon capture integration was mainly due to the power plant demanding a greater heat input for running the same gas cycle. Also the syngas must undergo water-gas shift reaction (WGSR) in order to convert CO to CO2, as the ensuing separation process can capture only CO2 efficiently from the syngas. The WGSR needs a huge amount of steam. The syngas leaving the scrubber already contains some steam, as it leaves the scrubber saturated with water. However more steam has to be added to the syngas to have the water-to-CO ratio around 2, to make sure good CO conversion. The extra steam has to be sourced from the steam cycle. Adding new units of the pre-combustion capture process and CO2 compressors augments the total capital cost and the operation of the CO2 capture and compression units increases the auxiliary power consumption. In turn, the net plant efficiency of the IGCC drops significantly with the cost of electricity rising accordingly. In this study, the whole IGCC power plant was simulated by using Honeywell UniSim based on the DOE study. The IGCC simulation also include a dual-stage Selexol process for pre-combustion capture to estimate the energy consumption involved, similarly to the past researches carried out by the group. It turned out that the sweet shift would give rise to greater reduction of the net power efficiency than the sour shift (Table 1), mainly due to it requiring approximately 4.6 times more shift steam, most of which has to be sourced from the steam cycle. This substantial increase of the shift steam usage involves significant alternation to the steam cycle. From the perspective of the energy penalty, the adverse effect resulting from the need for vast shift steam outweighs the positive aspect of the AGR (Acid Gas Removal) unit of the sweet shift case spending less power. On the other hand, the sour shift catalyst (CoMo) was estimated to have a reaction rate much lower than the sweet shift catalyst (Cu-ZnO) by two orders of magnitude at the condition of the low temperature shift reactor. It was certain that the sweet shift case had to undergo significant energy penalty due to it having to source vast steam from the steam cycle. This is not only because the syngas loses almost all the steam while being cooled for H2S removal, but also it requires a steam-to-CO ratio of water-gas shift reaction greater than it would do in sour shift case. To alleviate these adverse effects, the sweet shift case was designed to generate additional LP steam by recovering the heats from the raw and shifted syngas. Also the auxiliary power expensed in the AGR unit was found to be slightly less, due to the H2S absorber also functioning as a H2S concentrator. The resultant net plant efficiencies of the two cases exhibited that the sour shift case would be more energy-efficient than the sweet shift case by 3.7% points as shown in Table 1. However, the advantage would be compromised to some extent, given that the low temperature sour shift reactor had to be sized larger than the equivalent sweet shift reactor, due to the sour shift catalysts exhibiting lower reaction rates than the sweet catalysts at the condition.

Design of an integrated biomass gasification and proton exchange membrane fuel cell system under self-sustainable conditions: Process modification and heat-exchanger network synthesis

The design and analysis of an integrated biomass gasification and PEMFC system to generate heat and power demand for residential applications are presented in this study. Two biomass gasification configurations using sawdust as a feedstock are considered: air–steam biomass gasification (AS-BG-PEMFC) and steam-only biomass gasification (SO-BG-PEMFC). The biomass processing consists of a biomass gasification which is used to produce H2-rich gas (syngas), followed by high- and low-temperature shift reactors and a preferential oxidation reactor. Pinch analysis is performed to evaluate and design a heat-exchanger network in the two biomass gasification systems. The remaining useful heat is recovered and employed for a reactant preparation step and for a heating utility system in a household. The simulation results indicate that the SO-BG-PEMFC generates syngas with a greater H2 content than the AS-BG-PEMFC, resulting in higher fuel processor and electric efficiencies. However, the AS-BG-PEMFC provides a higher thermal efficiency because a high-temperature gaseous product is obtained, and more energy is thereby recovered to the system. The total heat and power efficiencies of the AS-BG-PEMFC and the SO-BG-PEMFC are 83% and 70%, respectively. The Sankey diagram of energy flows reveals that the performance improvement depends entirely on the utilization of useful energy in the exhaust gas.

Cu-Mn catalysts modified by rare earth lantnaum for low temperature water-gas shift reaction

The Cu-Mn catalysts doped with different amounts of lanthanum (La) for water-gas shift reaction (WGSR) were prepared, and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), temperature-programmed reduction (TPR), temperature-programmed reduction of oxidized surfaces (s-TPR), temperature-programmed desorption of CO2 (CO2-TPD), infrared spectrum (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Catalytic activities were tested for a water-gas shift reaction. The results showed that the introduction of 0.5 mol.% La could significantly improve the catalyst activity for low-temperature shift reaction compared with the undoped catalyst, which might be from the introduction of La making the Cu and Mn components distribute uniformly and the synergistic effect between Cu and Mn increasing the dispersion of Cu on the surface of the catalyst. The apparent CuO phases besides Cu1.5Mn1.5O4 were found in the samples with at least 3.0 mol.% La content, and the basic sites increased with the increasing of La contents at a decreased rate. With excessive La doping, La particles would aggregate and cover some active sites, resulting in that Mn could not effectively inhibit the gathering together and growing up of Cu crystalline grain, and decreased the dispersion of Cu on the surface, which resulted in the poor activity of the catalyst for WGSR.

Large-pore mesoporous RuNi-doped TiO2–Al2O3 nanocomposites for highly efficient selective CO methanation in hydrogen-rich reformate gases

A series of large-pore mesoporous RuNi-doped TiO2–Al2O3 nanocomposites were prepared by a facile sol–gel method using a one-pot protocol based on evaporation-induced self-assembly. Owing to high density of active sites, an open nanoarchitecture and highly promotional efficiency by synergetic effects, the as-prepared nanocomposites demonstrated excellent catalytic properties in selective CO methanation (CO-SMET). The final concentration of CO can be reduced to less than 50ppm with more than 50% selectivity over the MRNAT-30Ni catalyst. The working temperature window covered the typical working range of 200–250°C in conventional upstream low-temperature shift reactors. The MRNAT-30Ni catalyst has excellent stability during 200h time on stream with no detectable change in CO and CH4 concentrations, and CO in outlet reaches level below 20ppm under realistic reaction conditions. This remarkable improvement of activity/selectivity and stability could lead to wide implementation of this one-pot protocol for the synthesis of large-pore mesoporous nanocomposite catalysts for the CO-SMET process.

가스화기에서 WGS 반응을 통한 합성가스의 수소 전환

A gasification process with pre-combustion <TEX>$CO_2$</TEX> capture process, which converts coal into environment-friendly synthetic gas, might be promising option for sustainable energy conversion. In the coal gasification for power generation, coal is converted into <TEX>$H_2$</TEX>, CO and <TEX>$CO_2$</TEX>. To reduce the cost of <TEX>$CO_2$</TEX> capture and to maximize hydrogen production, the removal of CO and the additional production of hydrogen might be needed. In this study, a 2l/min water gas shift system for a coal gasifier has been studied. To control the concentration of major components such as <TEX>$H_2$</TEX>, CO, and <TEX>$CO_2$</TEX>, MFCs were used in experimental apparatus. The gas concentration in these experiments was equal with syngas concentration from dry coal gasifiers (<TEX>$H_2$</TEX>: 25-35, CO: 60-65, <TEX>$CO_2$</TEX>: 5-15 vol%). The operation conditions of the WGS system were <TEX>$200-400^{\circ}C$</TEX>, 1-10bar. Steam/Carbon ratios were between 2.0 and 5.0. The commercial catalysts were used in the high temperature shift reactor and the low temperature shift reactor. As steam/carbon ratio increased, the conversion (1-<TEX>$CO_{out}/CO_{in}$</TEX>) increased from 93% to 97% at the condition of CO: 65, <TEX>$H_2$</TEX>: 30, <TEX>$CO_2$</TEX>: 5%. However the conversion decreased with increasing of gas flow and temperature. The gas concentration from LTS was <TEX>$H_2$</TEX>: 54.7-60.0, <TEX>$CO_2$</TEX>: 38.8-44.9, CO: 0.3-1%.

Syngas production from oxidative methane reforming and CO cleaning with water gas shift reaction

Fuel cell based heat and power cogeneration is considered to be well qualified for a distributed energy system for residential and small business applications. A fuel processing unit including an oxidative steam methane reformer, a high temperature shift reactor and a low temperature shift reactor is under development in South China University of Technology. Performance of the unit is experimentally investigated in a bench-scale experimental setup. Processor performance under typical operating conditions is tested. The influence of reaction temperature, methane space velocity in the oxidative steam methane reformer, and air to carbon molar ratio on unit performances is experimentally studied. It is found that under the typical operating conditions, the total energy efficiency reaches 88.3%. The efficiency can further be improved by utilizing the sensible heat of the reformate gas. The current study has been focused on the chemical performances such as methane conversion of the reformer and CO concentration in the synthesis gas downstream water gas shift reactors. Heat integration of the unit will be further implemented in future to improve energy efficiency.

Hydrogen Production for Fuel Cells by a Methane Reformer Integrated with Steam Generation

The fuel cell based heat and power co-generation is considered to be well qualified for a distributed energy system for residential and small commercial applications. A kW-scale system is under development in the New Energy Group in South China University of Technology. Natural gas is selected as fuel for hydrogen production. The system mainly consists of a fuel processing unit, a power generation unit and an auxiliary unit. The fuel processing unit includes a reformer (integrated with steam generation), two high and low temperature shift reactors, and a preferential oxidation reactor. The reformer integrated with steam generation is designed to produce hydrogen-rich syngas from natural gas and water. It can be operated under steam methane reforming or oxidative steam reforming modes. 800 grams of commercial nickel catalyst supported on gamma alumina are loaded in the reformer. The reactor performances under typical steam reforming and oxidative reforming modes are tested. Influences of reaction temperature, steam-to-carbon ratio and methane space velocity on reactor performance under steam reforming mode are experimentally investigated. Influences of oxygen-to-carbon ratio, steam-to-carbon ratio and methane space velocity on reactor performance under oxidative reforming mode are also studied. The reformer will be integrated with the other parts of the system to build a complete system.

Energy and exergy analysis of a fuel cell based micro combined heat and power cogeneration system

A fuel cell based micro combined heat and power (CHP) cogeneration system is a cost-effective means of meeting residential energy needs if capital cost targets can be met. The cogeneration system mainly consists of a fuel processing unit, a power generation unit and an auxiliary unit. The fuel-processing unit under investigation includes an autothermal reformer, high and low temperature shift reactors and a CO preferential oxidation reactor. Energy and exergy analysis of the system is useful to investigate the effects of key operating parameters on the system performance. A micro-CHP system that produces approximately 1kW of electricity is simulated with Aspen Plus. A typical case is analyzed and system energy and exergy loss break-down is studied. It is found that for the typical case, energy carried by unuseful streams accounts for the majority of the energy and exergy losses. Among all the components, proton exchange membrane fuel cell posses the least energy efficiency and exergy efficiency. Effects of steam to carbon ratio, air to carbon ratio, hydrogen utilization efficiency, power generation efficiency, and process methane feed variation on system performances are parametrically studied.

Plant-wide control design for fuel processor system with PEMFC

The main contribution of this work is the application of a novel technique for the plant-wide control design to a challenging bio-ethanol processor system for hydrogen production. It is based on steam reforming, followed by high and low-temperature shift reactors and preferential oxidation. The obtained hydrogen feeds a fuel cell for automotive use. The control structure is defined by using a well-tested, systematic and generalized procedure, named minimum square deviation. It allows keeping the process at the operating point of maximum efficiency. This design procedure accounts both, set point as well as disturbances effects which can be sorted according to their importance through specific weighting matrices. The first step of this approach solves the problem of obtaining the best-controlled variables. Then, the search involves testing several combinations between the available input–output variables. The overall processor system with fuel cell, able for doing the tests, was modeled by using mass and energy balances, chemical equilibrium, thermodynamic models and feasible heat transfer conditions. The selected control structure is rigorously tested applied in the dynamic model of the complete plant. The computational implementation of this model was made by using a suitable integration of three well-known programs: MATLAB, HYSYS and ADVISOR. The simulations are performed for hybrid vehicle (PEMFC and supercapacitors). The disturbance profile corresponds to a urban standard driving cycle, which is one of the most exigent. The conclusions are based on fuel consumptions, typical performance indexes used for control strategy evaluations and a trade-off between cost investments and efficiency.

Chemical reactions and kinetics of a low-temperature water gas shift reaction heated by microwaves

Chemical reaction characteristics of a water gas shift reaction (WGSR) heated by microwaves are investigated experimentally where a Cu–Zn-based catalyst is employed. The experiments indicate that the performance of the low-temperature shift reaction (LTSR) increases with increasing temperature and steam/CO molar ratio. The effect of increasing temperature on CO conversion with microwave heating is contrary to that with conventional heating where the thermodynamic equilibrium dominates the LTSR in the latter. It follows that the reactions of the LTSR with microwave heating are governed by chemical kinetics. To further figure out the reaction phenomena inside the catalyst bed with microwave irradiation, a new chemical kinetic model accounting for the behavior of the LTSR are developed and the reaction phenomena are simulated numerically. In the numerical method, the continuity, momentum, energy and species equations as well as the electromagnetic fields are simultaneously solved. It is of interest that the temperature distribution in the catalyst bed is nearly uniform due to the exothermic reaction featured. When the thermal behavior of the LTSR is examined, heat generation stemming from microwave irradiation is always larger than that from the chemical reaction.

Hydrogen production from water gas shift reactions in association with separation using a palladium membrane tube

SUMMARY Hydrogen production from water gas shift reactions (WGSRs) of synthesis gas (syngas) followed by separation via a Pd membrane was studied experimentally. In the reactions, a variety of combinations of a high-temperature shift reaction (HTSR), a low-temperature shift reaction (LTSR) and a palladium (Pd) membrane tube were considered. The results indicated that the CO conversion from the LTSR was close to that of the HTSR and LTSR in series; however, the latter with the Pd membrane could provide a much low CO concentration at the permeate side. On the other hand, while the produced hydrogen diffused through the membrane, methane was also found at the both sides of the membrane due to the methanation reaction activated by the Pd membrane. In the present system, increasing the steam/CO ratio enhanced the forward reaction of the WGSRs and elongated the residence time of the reactants in the catalyst beds, resulting in the increases of CO conversion and hydrogen recovery. As a whole, the concentration of CO in the separated hydrogen was lower than 50 ppm from the combination of the HTSR and the LTSR with the membrane, whereby the produced hydrogen could be applied in proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Effects of PEMFC operating parameters on the performance of an integrated ethanol processor

In this paper the performance of a complete fuel cell system processing ethanol fuel has been analyzed as a function of the main fuel cell operating parameters. The fuel processor is based on the steam reforming process, followed by high- and low-temperature shift reactors, and carbon monoxide preferential oxidation reactor, which are coupled to a polymeric fuel cell (PEMFC). The goal was to analyze and improve the fuel cell system performance by simulation techniques. PEMFC operation has been analyzed using an available parametric model, which was implemented within HYSYS environment software. Pinch Analysis concepts were used to investigate the process energy integration and determine the maximum efficiency minimizing ethanol consumption. The system performance was analyzed for the SR-12 Modular PEM Generator, the Ballard Mark V fuel cell and the BCS 500 W stack. The net system efficiency is dependent on the required power demand. Efficiency values higher than 50% at low loads and less than 30% at high power demands are computed. In addition, the effect of fuel cell temperature, pressure and hydrogen utilization was analyzed. The trade-off between the reformer yield and the fuel cell performance defines the optimal operation pressure. The cell temperature determines operating zones where the water, involved in the reforming reactions, can be produced or demanded.

A portable fuel processor for hydrogen production from ethanol in a 250Wel fuel cell system

This paper describes the design, manufacturing, operation, and optimization of a mobile ethanol reformer fuel cell system for off-grid power production. The reformer system includes an autothermal reformer, high and low temperature shift reactors, a selective methanation reactor, and a tail gas combustor. A minimum amount of process controls and little internal heat integration kept system architecture simple. Process simulations provided optimal operating parameters, expected hydrogen yield, and system efficiency. The reformer temperature was selected to be 730 °C with minimal methane production and no soot formation in the reactor. The oxygen-to-steam ratio is determined by the temperature of feed streams, reforming temperature and heat losses. It was set to be in the order of 0.9. The steam-to-carbon ratio has no impact on carbon monoxide concentration (on a dry basis) in the reformer system product gas, i.e. at the outlet of the selective methanation reactor. Therefore, it was selected to be 2.5, sufficiently high to avoid soot formation in the reforming reactor and yet small enough to keep the size of the water evaporator in a sensible range. The reformer fuel cell system was operated in a lab environment and all reactors were thoroughly investigated. Main focus was to keep the carbon monoxide concentration at the outlet of the selective methanation reactor below 10 ppmv at all times. Furthermore, start-up and shut down procedures were optimized to minimize degradation of the catalysts. Finally, the complete reformer fuel cell system was operated to investigate its performance. System controls allowed fully automated operation of the integrated reformer fuel cell system.

Dynamic Simulation of a Stationary Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell System

A dynamic model of a stationary proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system has been developed in MATLAB-SIMULINK®. The system model accounts for the fuel processing system, PEM stack with coolant, humidifier with anode tail-gas oxidizer, and an enthalpy wheel for cathode air. Four reactors are modeled for the fuel processing system: (1) an autothermal reformation (ATR) reactor, (2) a high temperature shift (HTS) reactor, (3) a low temperature shift (LTS) reactor, and (4) a preferential oxidation reactor. Chemical kinetics for ATR that describe steam reformation of methane and partial oxidation of methane were simultaneously solved to accurately predict the reaction dynamics. The chemical equilibrium of CO with H2O was assumed at HTS and LTS reactor exits to calculate CO conversion corresponding to the temperature of each reactor. A quasi-one-dimensional PEM unit cell was modeled with five control volumes for solving the dynamic species and mass conservation equations and seven control volumes to solve the dynamic energy balance. The quasi-one-dimensional cell model is able to capture the details of membrane electrode assembly behavior, such as water transport, which is critical to accurately determine polarization losses. The dynamic conservation equations, primary heat transfer equations and equations of state are solved in each bulk component, and each component is linked together to represent the complete system. The model predictions well matched the observed experimental dynamic voltage, stack coolant outlet temperature, and catalytic partial oxidation (CPO) temperature responses to perturbations. The dynamic response characteristics of the current system are representative of a typical stationary PEM fuel cell system. The dynamic model is used to develop and test a proportional-integral (PI) fuel flow controller that determines the fuel flow rate to maintain the uniform system efficiency. The dynamic model is shown to be a useful tool for investigating the effects of inlet conditions, load, and fuel flow perturbations and for the development of control strategies for enhancing system performance.