OP-II-3

OP-III-B-5PARTIAL DEHYDROGENATION OF KEROSENE AS HYDROGENSOURCE FOR FUEL CELLS IN MICROSTRUCTURED REACTORSKolb G., Tiemann D., Hessel V.Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz GmbH (IMM), Carl-Zeiss-Str.18-20 D-55129 Mainz;Tel.: ++49-6131-990-341; Fax.:-305; e-mail: kolb@imm-mainz.deIntroductionMicrostructured reactors offer benefits concerning efficiency and size reductionowing to their potential of heat integration and improved heat and mass transfer. Fuelcells are regarded as a viable energy source for mobile applications, among them foraviation purposes. However, different concepts do exist for the hydrogen supplysource for fuel cells in the field of aviation, e.g. liquid and compressed storage andfuel processing of kerosene. While fuel processing of hydrocarbon fuels requires notonly a reformer but also CO clean-up reactors of a complexity which is closely relatedto the fuel cell type supplied by the reformer [1], partial dehydrogenation of thekerosene (here expressed as a C 12 H 23 -hydrocarbon):C 12 H 23 → C 12 H 21 + H 2 (1)which is readily available on board of every aircraft and represents an alternativeprocessing route with the potential to achieve reduced system complexity, providedthe dehydrogenation reaction does not change the combustion characteristics of thefuel considerably.Catalyst ScreeningSulphur free kerosene (S content 1 ppm) was chosen as fuel for the screeningtests A number of platinum based bi-metallic catalysts were investigated, the secondmetal being one of the elements tin, gallium, iridium, rhenium, sodium, potassiumand others. All catalysts were wash-coated onto aluminium foams and tested attemperatures between 300°C and 400°C at pressures between 5 and 15 bar.Most of the catalysts showed rapid deactivation during the first few hours oftesting despite the absence of sulphur in the feed. However, a platinum basedformulation could be identified, which showed stable performance at 15% conversionaccording to equation (1), a VHSV of 1400 L/(h g cat ) for 100 hours as a result of theoptimization work.188