Commercial propane can contain up to 300 ppm of Sulfur so that reforming technologies based on catalytic processes can not be directly applied without prior cleaning of such a feed in order to avoid the reformer’s catalyst poisoning (while some Solid Oxide Fuel Cells can accept Sulfur-polluted syngas). We run our reforming process in a presence of high-voltage discharges (called GlidArc) that assist the Partial Oxidation of pure or polluted propane. Electric consumption for this non-catalytic reformer is less than 2% of a Fuel Cell electric output. Recycling such a small portion of the electric energy is, in our opinion, an acceptable compromise as our active (and also very simple) GlidArc discharges play a role of an igniter and homogeneous phase catalyst; they also stabilize a post-plasma zone of our reformer. Our 1-Liter reactor works at atmospheric pressure and needs less than 100 W of electric assistance to produce up to 3 m3(n)/h of pure syngas corresponding to about 10 kW of electric power of an ideal Fuel Cell. The propane is totally reformed at more than 70% energetic efficiency and at the total absence of soot.

This content is only available via PDF.
You do not currently have access to this content.