Development of the Simulator to predict the Life of Desulfurization Agents in Fuel Cells

摘要

Fuel desulfurization at ambient conditions is essential for stationary fuel cell (FC) systems in order to prevent deactivation of the reforming catalysts. The desulfurization agents must be capable of reducing the sulfur concentration in fuels to extremely low levels (below 20 ppb by mass) for a period of at least 10 years to be of practical use. Because durability testing takes such a long time, a big challenge for our FC researchers has been finding ways to evaluate the service life of these agents using simple laboratory tests. In 2007, we developed a kinetic model for adsorption of sulfur compounds by the agents and applied the model for predicting the service life of desulfurization agents. Our successful construction of this kinetic model made it possible to predict the life of desulfurization agents using a short-term test with sufficient precision.