The APERG program is funded by the Reuben and Alice Wasser A.P.C. Education and Research Charitable Remainder Unitrust.
2002 APERG Scholar: Yongtaek Choi
Lehigh University
Project Title: Fuel Cell Grade Hydrogen From Methanol
Abstract
The interest in hydrogen production for fuel cell applications is steadily increasing due to environmental and national security concerns. The overall goal of this research is to discover and derive the necessary scientific and engineering information to design and optimize a compact and efficient methanol reformer capable of producing hydrogen for the fuel cells of fuel cell vehicles. For the design or operation purpose of the methanol reformer, it is needed to understand not only the reaction mechanism and kinetics of every catalytic reaction involved but also the optimization of this reaction/reactor system. As a strategic approach, we focus on realistic simulation and extensive optimization work using data from commercially available catalysts and simple kinetics.
