Dynamic modeling and controllability analysis of an ethanol reformer for fuel cell application

Abstract

This work presents a controllability analysis of a low temperature ethanol reformer based on a cobalt catalyst for fuel cell application. The study is based on a nonlinear dynamic model of a reformer which operates in three separate stages: ethanol dehydrogenation to acetaldehyde and hydrogen, acetaldehyde steam reforming, and water gas shift reaction. The controllability analysis is focused on the rapid dynamics due to mass balances and is based on a linearization of the complex non-linear model of the reformer. RGA, CN and MRI analysis tools are applied to the linear model suggesting that a good performance can be obtained with decentralized control for frequencies up to 0.1 rad/s.