Design and performance of 5 kW reforming methanol high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell system

Compared with pure hydrogen, liquid methanol has the advantages of convenient storage and transportation, wide range of sources, and high volume energy density. It can also be used to produce hydrogen through on-site reforming and combine it with high-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells (HT-PEMFC) to generate electricity. It is expected to solve the challenge of using hydrogen in low-temperature PEMFC. In this work, an HT-PEMFC stack and a methanol reformer (MSR) were employed. The HT-PEMFC stack shows an output of 5.46 kW@80 A at 160℃ and H2/air atmosphere. Meanwhile, the MSR has a gas flow rate of 5 m3/h, where the content of the syngas is 74.8% for H2, 1% for CO and 24.2% for CO2. When the MSR and HT-PEMFC were integrated into the system with parallel configuration for the two thermal subsystems, the power output of the system is consistent with the value of the stack at H2/air atmosphere. More importantly, the methanol aqueous solution (volume ratio 6∶4) consumption rate of the system is only 0.81 kg/(kW·h). In conclusion, the MSR/HT-PEMFC system shows promising applications in stationary energy supply and emergency power supply. © 2024 Materials China. All rights reserved.