Measurement and analysis of carbon formation during diesel reforming for solid oxide fuel cells

Experiments and equilibrium analysis were conducted to study carbon formation during diesel reforming for a solid oxide fuel cell-based auxiliary power unit (APU) application. A photo-acoustic instrument provided direct measurements of solid carbon concentration in the reformer effluent stream, which could be correlated to reformate gas composition (as determined via mass spectrometer) and reformer temperature. These measurements were complimented by equilibrium calculations based upon minimization of total Gibbs free energy. It was determined that oxygen-to-carbon ratio (O/C), fuel utilization fraction and anode recycle fraction all influence the degree of carbon formation, and that once significant carbon concentration is measured, the reformer performance begins to show marked degradation. At a fixed operating point, lowering the reformer temperature produced by far the largest change in effluent carbon concentration. Systematic variation in O/C, fuel utilization and anode recycle revealed the interdependence among reformer temperature, effluent gas composition and carbon concentration, with a strong correlation between carbon and ethylene concentrations observed for [C2H4] > 0.8%. After each experiment, baseline reformer performance could be recovered by operation under methane partial oxidation (POx) conditions, indicating that reformer degradation results at least in part from carbon deposition on the reformer catalyst. ► Diesel reforming for solid oxide fuel cell-based auxiliary power units. ► Equilibrium analysis used to identify low, moderate and high solid carbon (coke) formation potentials. ► Photo-acoustic instrument used for direct measurement of solid carbon in the reformer effluent. ► Strong correlation between measured carbon and ethylene concentrations. ► Reformer temperature had by far the largest influence on the quantity of carbon produced.