Jonathan Charles Frost

On-board hydrogen generation for transport applications: the HotSpot™ methanol processor

In the absence of a hydrogen infrastructure, development of effective on-board fuel processors is likely to be critical to the commercialisation of fuel-cell cars. The HotSpot™ reactor converts methanol, water and air in a single compact catalyst bed into a reformate containing mainly CO2 and hydrogen (and unreacted nitrogen). The process occurs by a combination of exothermic partial oxidation and endothermic steam reforming of methanol, to produce 750 l of hydrogen per hour from a 245-cm3 reactor. The relative contribution of each reaction can be tuned to match the system requirements at a given time. Scale-up is achieved by the parallel combination of the required number of individual HotSpot reactors, which are fed from a central manifold. Using this modular design, the start-up and transient characteristics of a large fuel-processor are identical to that of a single reactor. When vaporised liquid feed and air are introduced into cold reactors, 100% output is achieved in 50 s; subsequent changes in throughput result in instantaneous changes in output. Surplus energy within the fuel-cell powertrain can be directed to the manifold, where it can be used to vaporise the liquid feeds and so promote steam reforming, resulting in high system efficiency. The small amount of CO that is produced by the HotSpot reactions is attenuated to <10 ppm by a catalytic clean-up unit. The HotSpot concept and CO clean-up strategy are not limited to the processing of methanol, but are being applied to other organic fuels.

The development of a model capable of predicting diesel lean NOx catalyst performance under transient conditions

Abstract Steady state kinetics data from a commercial Pt-based lean NOx catalyst have been used to formulate a kinetic model to describe the performance of the catalyst. It is clear from this analysis that steady state kinetics in isolation are not sufficient to provide a full picture of the operational performance of such a catalyst. However, when this kinetic analysis is combined with mechanistic information obtained over the catalyst, the resulting model is extremely powerful. Within this paper, the development of the kinetic model is described, and the requirement for both accurate mechanistic information and detailed kinetic measurements is clearly demonstrated. The use of the model to predict the performance of a light-duty diesel vehicle under light-off conditions is described, and the power and flexibility of the model within the lean NOx area are emphasised.

The Development of a Model Capable of Predicting Diesel Lean NOx Catalyst Performance Under Transient Conditions

Steady state kinetics data from a commercial Pt-based lean NOx catalyst have been used to formulate a kinetic model to describe the performance of the catalyst. It is clear from this analysis that steady state kinetics in isolation are not sufficient to provide a full picture of the operational performance of such a catalyst. However, when this kinetic analysis is combined with mechanistic information obtained over the catalyst, the resulting model is extremely powerful. Within this paper, the development of the kinetic model is described, and the requirement for both accurate mechanistic information and detailed kinetic measurements is clearly demonstrated. The use of the model to predict the performance of a light-duty diesel vehicle under light-off conditions is described, and the power and flexibility of the model within the lean NOx area are emphasised.

The use of catalysts with ambient temperature activity for the control of cold-start automotive emissions

Abstract A combination of engine management and catalyst technology has been utilized to greatly reduce HC emissions from a 1994 production vehicle. The key to the catalyst technology is its activity for CO and H2 oxidation at ambient temperature, allowing excellent pollutant control from a cold start.