Design and analysis of HT-PEMFC systems with different fuel processors for stationary applications

Abstract

Due to its high CO tolerance, the high-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) has a simpler fuel processing than a low-temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cell (LT-PEMFC) system. In this study, a performance of the HT-PEMFC integrated with a glycerol steam reformer system with/without a water gas shift reactor is examined and compared with the LT-PEMFC system. The HT-PEMFC system shows good performance over the LT-PEMFC system at the operational condition of high current density condition (>6000 A/m2). The presence of high CO concentration is the main problem of operation of HT-PEMFC system without the water gas shift reactor at high current density. At the same time, the LT-PEMFC suffers from CO poisoning and low oxygen concentration at high current density as well. Considering the system efficiency, the HT-PEMFC system with the water gas shift reactor in the glycerol processor shows the highest overall system efficiency.