Performance of a natural gas fuel processor for residential PEFC system using a novel CO preferential oxidation catalyst

Natural gas fuel processors have been developed for 500 W and 1 kW class residential polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) systems. These fuel processors contain all the elements—desulfurizers, steam reformers, CO shift converters, CO preferential oxidation (PROX) reactors, steam generators, burners and heat exchangers—in one package. For the PROX reactor, a single-stage PROX process using a novel PROX catalyst was adopted. In the 1 kW class fuel processor, thermal efficiency of 83% at HHV was achieved at nominal output assuming a H2 utilization rate in the cell stack of 76%. CO concentration below 1 ppm in the product gas was achieved even under the condition of [O2]/[CO]=1.5 at the PROX reactor. The long-term durability of the fuel processor was demonstrated with almost no deterioration in thermal efficiency and CO concentration for 10,000 h, 1000 times start and stop cycles, 25,000 cycles of load change.