Current small mobile power systems use diesel engines that are heavy, inefficient, noisy, maintenance intensive, and
produce odors and smoke. In comparison, fuel cell power systems are efficient, quiet and have clean exhausts, making
them an ideal
replacement for current mobile power sources. However, diesel fuel used in military and civilian power applications is
difficult to convert into a clean reformate, which is needed for reliable fuel cell operation. Specifically, current fuel cell
reformers degrade in performance over time, as a result of carbon deposition and sulfur poisoning of catalyst active
sites. In addition, these contaminants also carry over to the fuel cell, greatly shortening fuel cell lifetime. This
significant limitation is overcome by an innovative multistep process, which cleans the fuel, removes sulfur
compounds, and reforms the fuel at low temperature.
Working under Army support, Altex and PSU have initiated the packaging of this innovative reformer for a 2kWe
fuel cell mobile power application. The above figure shows the consistent reformate composition over a 72 hour test period.
Besides the Army application, this
type of system is of high interest to the Marines. Also, given the effectiveness of the initial fuels processing and
desulfurization, the Navy is interested in these components for future ship distributed power applications. By moving
to an all electric ship, powered by distributed fuel cell units, ship efficiency, reliability and survivability are greatly
increased. These systems, currently in development, support that the Altex
and PSU technology is broadly applicable to a range
of military applications. These types of units could also be applied to civilian applications.