An On-Board Pure H₂ Supply System Based on A Membrane Reactor for A Fuel Cell Vehicle: A Theoretical Study

In this novel conceptual fuel cell vehicle (FCV), an on-board CH₄ steam reforming (MSR) membrane reformer (MR) is considered to generate pure H₂ for supplying a Fuel Cell (FC) system, as an alternative to the conventional automobile engines. Two on-board tanks are forecast to store CH₄ and water, useful for feeding both a combustion chamber (designed to provide the heat required by the system) and a multi tubes Pd-Ag MR useful to generate pure H₂ via methane steam reforming (MSR) reaction. The pure H₂ stream is hence supplied to the FC. The flue gas stream coming out from the combustion chamber is used to preheat the MR feed stream by two heat exchangers and one evaporator. Then, this theoretical work demonstrates by a 1-D model the feasibility of the MR based system in order to generate 5 kg/day of pure H₂ required by the FC system for cruising a vehicle for around 500 km. The calculated CH₄ and water consumptions were 50 and 70 kg, respectively, per 1 kg of pure H₂. The on-board MR based FCV presents lower CO₂ emission rates than a conventional gasoline-powered vehicle, also resulting in a more environmentally friendly solution.