Modelling and dynamic simulation of a fuel cell system with an autothermal gasoline reformer

In order to describe the dynamic behaviour of a fuel cell system its components are modelled by the help of 1D dynamic models which are implemented in Matlab Simulink. The fuel cell system consists of an autothermal gasoline reformer (ATR) which for the realisation of a high system efficiency is thermally coupled to the other system components (gas purification, heat exchangers). Dynamic simulations of load changes show that the dynamic behaviour of such a system is primarily dominated by the response times of the liquid water flowing through the heat exchangers, the volume of which should consequently be reduced to a minimum in order to achieve shorter response times. In contrast, the dynamic behaviour of the reactors is not critical. The composition of the product gas at the ATR-outlet is however influenced by the moisture content of the gas at the ATR inlet, which in turn is negatively influenced for a short transition period by the residence times of the water flowing through the heat exchangers during a load change. According to the results obtained, the system is able to adjust to load changes within 20 s for a load increase (10–90% of full load) and within 3 s for a load decrease (90–10% of full load).