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Biotech / Medical : Catalytica Energy Systems, Inc. (CESI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill Tomko who wrote (1485)	3/8/2000 4:20:00 PM
From: Erik T	Respond to of 1514

Fuel cell stuff with CAT and MTI: Sometimes searching the web is much more informative than the little nuggets PR gives out. Here is a paper from 1/4/00 updating the Dept of Energy on the gas reformer project with McDermott. netl.doe.gov "MTI and CAT are developing a compact, autothermal fuel processor system designed for on-board vehicle operation. As part of this development we are evaluating various catalyst compositions and performing extensive catalyst characterization testing. In addition, proprietary liquid-phase, desulfurization technologies are being developed to facilitate removal of organically bound sulfer from gasoline. This work will be followed by a 20 kw breadboard gasoline fuel processor demonstration. The 20 kw system will demonstrate integrated performance and provide design validation necessary for testing a compact 50 kw fuel processor in 2001.... "The combined capabilities of MTI and CAT are expected to accelerate fuel processor development based on the recognition that catalysts provide an important key to reducing the size and maximizing the performance of the fuel processor. "Building on MTI's experience with processing sulfur-bearing liquid fuels for military fuel cell applications, the design assumes commercially available gasoline is the primary fuel with methanol/ethanol or biodiesel as secondary fuels." This is extremely important. The fuel cell's themselves have been ready for commercial use for some time now. The big problem, and expense, remains in the gas reformer component. It is also the source of emissions. Interesting to note, the current design Ballard is planning on for commercialization in 2004 is to use methanol as the fuel. No one has yet come up with a gasoline reformer that will satisfy size and power/size constraints...not yet! "The liquid fuel desulfurizer reduces the sulfur in the gasoline from 20-100 ppm to less than 3 ppm." This is important as sulfur can be toxic to fuel cell stacks. This is one reason why it is so hard to build a cost effective high power gasoline reformer. This is why so many are going the methanol route. Catalytica/McDermott are well on their way. "The selective oxidation unit will reduce the remaining CO in the syngas down to less than 10 ppm." Note that Plug Power's "revolutionary" fuel cell has CO of 50 ppm. Not good enough for zero-emission auto's! "The corresponding power density and specific power for the conceptual design are 280 W/L and 285 W/kg, respectively. The PNGV targets for the same performance parameters are 750 W/L and 750 W/kg. This assumes a 50 kw system.... At first these densities may appear low when compared to published data on other developers fuel processors. Typically, densities around 500 W/L and 500 W/kg are reported, but those estimates usually do not include equipment for sulfur capture or selective oxidation. This is reasonable, since those systems are primarily designed for methanol." CAT/MTI are focused on gasoline as the fuel. Despite the extra technical difficulties involved with such a system, it makes sense seeing as the entire modern world's transportation infrastructure is based on gasoline, not methanol. "MTI and CAT believe the size and weight reductions presented in Table 1 are achivable. A 25% reduction in size will be realized by pressurizing the system to three atmospheres. Full integration of the current breadboard design will result in an additional 25-30% reduction in size and weight. Finally, an additional 10-15% reduction can be realized through improved catalyst performance." "Rapid response is typically associated with partial oxidation reformers because the heat is released directly in the reformer bed. However if measures are not taken to simultaneously heat the water-gas unit and CO cleanup components total start-up time will be limited by the heat up rate of these components." Another company working with DOE on fuel reformers using methanol (how mundane) shows a chart showing start-up time of 10 mins. Inadequate! (A lot of talk about specific component development to circumvent the problem, net result...) "MTI experience indicates that start-up will take approximately two minutes, but that with the incorporation of developments identified here the start-up time can be reduced by approximately 50%." One minute is the PNGV's goal for start-up time. "Early technical performance estimates and cost estimates are closely matched to those delineated in the PNGV targets. MTI and CAT are working to a 2004 commercialization date for the technology. We are targeting 2002 to have a prototype version of the fuel processor."