Flex-Fuel Hydrogen Reformer for IC Engines and Gas Turbines

Abstract

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 NOx and diesel particulate traps for diesel engines, and / or it can provide H2 for a mobile or a portable fuel cell power generator.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE INFORMATION[0001]This application claims benefit and priority of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 900,479 filed on May 22, 2013, herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONInternal Combustion Engines and Gas Turbines[0002]In the 20th century, various types of internal combustion (IC) engines and gas turbines have successfully been developed, and have been widely used over the years in the stationary power generation, transportation and utility applications. For example, the 2-stroke and 4-stroke gasoline engines are used for motorcycle, chainsaw, lawn mower, weed eater, automobile, small power generator etc, the diesel engines are used for truck, bus, stationary power generator etc, and the gas turbines are used for airplanes, power generators etc. Currently, most of the IC engines and gas turbines utilize homogeneous flame combustion of various hydrocarbons (HC) to generate power, and it is known that the ignition timing, the comp...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

This patent describes a system for controlling the flow of reactants in a catalytic reformer. The system uses automatic control to regulate the flow rate of each reactant simultaneously by downloading a set of flow requirements to flow controllers. The system also maintains the ratios of O2, H2O, CO2, and C in the fuel mixture to control the temperature of the reaction. Adding hydrogen to the fuel mixture allows for lean burn combustion and increases the engine's thermal efficiency. Recycling exhaust gas reduces heat loss and maintains the reaction zones without external heat sources. The system can continuously adjust the fuel mixture to maintain the desired reformer temperature.

Problems solved by technology

However, despite all the necessary controls and the technology advances over the years, any internal combustion engine or gas turbine will still emit pollutants such as unburned hydrocarbons, CO, NOx, diesel particulates etc.

However, by using either homogeneous partial oxidation reactions or by using very low activity catalysts to produce H2 from gasoline, these on-board reformers were bulky and also could not avoid coke formation in the reaction zones.

However, these pre-engine hydrogen reformers have not successfully been developed as commercial products, probably due to coking formation inside the bulky reformer.

However, the corrosive nature of the KOH or NaOH electrolyte can potentially cause permanent damage to the engines.

Furthermore, since the reformer's operation as discussed in this patent is directly related to the engine's speed and torque (paragraph #0186), there is a high tendency to form coke inside the reformer during the transient unsteady state operation, especially if diesel oil is used as the reformer's fuel.

However, these on-board reformers have not been widely used commercially, probably due to coke formation and / or their short useful life during the applications.

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