A less-costly fuel-cell design

摘要

To get around the problem of a nonexistent hydrogen infrastructure, a research firm examined reformer systems for fuel cells that produce hydrogen from gasoline. Directed Technologies Inc. (DTI), Arlington, Va. (directedtechnologies.com), recently completed a multiyear study funded by the Dept. of Energy. To compare several onboard-hydrogen-system designs, DTI used Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) software from Boothroyd Dewhurst Inc., Wakefleld, R.I. (DFMA.com). The software provides metric tools for costing, analyzing, and evaluating product designs at the early stages of development. Fuel systems the company examined had several major subassemblies including fuel cell stacks and an autothermal reformer, which extracts hydrogen from gas by burning a portion of the hydrogen-bearing fuel inside a vessel filled with a catalyst.