A compact, self-sustaining fuel cell auxiliary power unit operated on diesel fuel

5Citations
Citations of this article
9Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

A complete fuel cell-based auxiliary power unit in the 7.5 kWe power class utilizing diesel fuel was developed in accordance with the power density and start-up targets defined by the U.S. Department of Energy. The system includes a highly-integrated fuel processor with multifunctional reactors to facilitate autothermal reforming, the water-gas shift reaction, and catalytic combustion. It was designed with the help of process analyses, on the basis of which two commercial, high-temperature PEFC stacks and balance of plant components were selected. The complete system was packaged, which resulted in a volume of 187.5 l. After achieving a stable and reproducible stack performance based on a modified break-in procedure, a maximum power of 3.3 kWe was demonstrated in a single stack. Despite the strong deviation from design points resulting from a malfunctioning stack, all system functions could be validated. By scaling-up the performance of the functioning stack to the level of two stacks, a power density of 35 We l−1 could be estimated, which is close to the 40 We l−1 target. Furthermore, the start-up time could be reduced to less than 22 min, which exceeds the 30 min target. These results may bring diesel-based fuel cell auxiliary power units a step closer to use in real applications, which is supported by the demonstrated indicators.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Samsun, R. C., Prawitz, M., Tschauder, A., Weiske, S., Pasel, J., & Peters, R. (2021). A compact, self-sustaining fuel cell auxiliary power unit operated on diesel fuel. Energies, 14(18). https://doi.org/10.3390/en14185909

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free