Controllability study of an ethanol steam reforming process for hydrogen production

Abstract

A system for ethanol steam reforming and purification of carbon monoxide (CO)\ud designed to feed a PEM fuel cell has been modelled. From the model, we study the\ud sensitivity and controllability emphasizing the study of the influence of the temperature\ud on the output variables of interest. The results of the study of controllability are used for the identification of the best control structures.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Process simulation and optimisation of H2 production from ethanol steam reforming and its use in fuel cells. 1. Thermodynamic and kinetic analysis

“…Most publications adopt a "power-rate law" approach [3,10,11,[28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. Among these, some [10,11,34] refer to special reaction conditions, with proper temperature allowing ethanol dehydrogenation to acetaldehyde, which then decomposes to CH 4 and CO in the same reactor or is subsequently reformed in a second unit.…”

Design of linear controllers applied to an ethanol steam reformer for PEM fuel cell applications

“…As explained in [2] the flowrates of ethanol and water at the reactor entrance (F C2H5OH , F H2O ), the temperature of the entering mixture (T gas,e ), and the temperatures of the furnaces of the three reforming stages (T F,S1 , T F,S2 , T F,S3 ) have been considered as inputs. As outputs to be controlled we have considered the flowrates of H 2 and CO (F H2 and F CO ) at the output of the reformer.…”

“…As outputs to be controlled we have considered the flowrates of H 2 and CO (F H2 and F CO ) at the output of the reformer. A controllability analysis based on a linear model was done in [2]. According to RGA, MRI and CN controllability indexes, five different control structures were selected as the most promising ones for the control of F H2 and F CO .…”

“…In previous contributions [1][2] the authors reported results addressing the dynamic modelling and controllability analysis of a low temperature catalytic ethanol steam reformer for fuel cell hydrogen feeding. In this work, the design of linear controllers suitable for this ethanol reformer is reported and a comparative analysis between different controllers is performed through simulation.…”

“…The authors already modelled the reformer by using a one-dimensional, pseudo-homogeneous model based on mass and energy balances [1]. Based on the controllability analysis made in [2], only five control structures are considered in this work in the search of the best controllers.…”