Producing Hydrogen From Jet-A Fuel in a Reactor With Integrated Autothermal Reforming and Water-Gas Shift

Jet fuel is used to produce hydrogen on board of vehicles through integrated reactions of autothermal reforming (ATR) and water-gas shift (WGS). One of the most attractive benefits of autothermal reforming of hydrocarbon fuels is the possibility of self-sustainability of the reaction if the process is carefully managed and designed. In this work, an integrated fuel processor, including a mixing zone, an ATR reactor, a WGS reactor and two recuperators was fabricated and the hydrogen production performance (using Jet fuel) was tested and studied. Analysis of the energy in reactions and heat transfer area in the heat recuperator was carried out in order to obtain some insights on the optimal design and operating conditions. The previous experimental results regarding the reformate compositions and fuel conversion efficiency were used to evaluate some of the parameters described in the energy analysis model. The predicted results show that the overall process heat was negative (exchanging heat larger than preheating heat) under most of the previous experimental conditions, indicating the potential of self-sustainability of reaction in the fuel processor.