Flex-Fuel Hydrogen Reformer for IC Engines and Gas Turbines

摘要

An on-board Flex-Fuel H₂ reforming apparatus provides devices and the methods of operating these devices to produce H₂ and CO from hydrocarbons and bio-fuels. One or more parallel autothermal reformers are used to convert the fuels into H₂ over the Pt group metal catalysts without external heat and power. The produced reformate is then cooled and the dry gas is compressed and stored in vessels at a pressure between 1 to 100 atmospheres. For this system, the pressure of the storage vessels and the flow control curves are used directly to control the amount of the reformers' reformate output.;To improve thermal efficiency of a mobile vehicle or a distributed power generator, portion of the reformate from the storage vessels is used to mix with the primary fuels and air as part of a lean burn fuel mixture for the engine/gas turbine. Also, this on-board Flex-Fuel H₂ reforming apparatus can provide H₂ to regenerate the NO_x and diesel particulate traps for diesel engines, and/or it can provide H₂ for a mobile or a portable fuel cell power generator.