OP-II-3

PP-III-55EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF SOOT ABATEMENT IN REDUCINGSYNGAS FOR HIGH TEMPERATURE FUEL CELL FEEDRaimondi A. 1 , Loukou A. 2 , Fino D. 1 , Saracco G. 1 , Trimis D. 21 Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Politecnico di Torino,Turin, Italy, corresponding author: andrea.raimondi@polito.it2 Insitute of Thermal Engineering, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Freiberg, GermanyA novel approach for removing soot emitted by a Thermal Partial Oxidation(TPOX) reactor was investigated experimentally. According to this new route sootgets retained within a SiC wall-flow filter and reacted away by the synthesis gas(syngas) flow at high-enough temperatures and suitable operating conditions. Thistechnique was developed to satisfy the stringent specifications of a small-scalecombined-heat-and-power (CHP) unit for domestic appliances based on SOFC fuelcells.The possibility to remove soot in a very reducing atmosphere, with no oxygenaddition, has indeed been previously presented by the same authors [1,2,3], in orderto develop a simple and low-cost solution to protect the anode of a SOFC (SolidOxide Fuel Cell), fed by the syngas produced by an innovative hydrocarbon multi-fuelprocessing unit based on porous ceramic media [3,4]. The previous results showedthe possibility to achieve an equilibrium between the soot retained within the trapchannels and the soot that is removed by gasification, simply setting the air to fuelratio of the TPOX syngas generator at low enough values. The proof of concept hasbeen presented. Despite this solution can represent an interesting option for systemsbased on fuel cell applications, the kinetics involved appeared rather slow comparedto direct combustion of soot in alternative appliances (e.g. soot trap regeneration incar exhaust treatment). The present investigation aims at exploring pathways toaccelerate the soot conversion process, by investigating the effect on soot abatementof different input parameters such as the lambda factor, the specific power densityand the air pre-heating. The best operating conditions are tentatively pointed out forthe novel soot abatement system proposed. The dynamics of soot deposition/gasification within the filter has been monitored as pressure drop between inlet andoutlet of the trap.The tests have been carried out by loading the soot trap until a value of 6 mbar at8 kW of thermal load and at a lambda value of 0.40. The loading conditions have540