Design and analysis of ammonia reactor to produce hydrogen for fuel cell applications.

摘要

In this thesis a packed bed reactor is designed and analyzed, in which ammonia is decomposed to produce sufficient hydrogen for generating 100 W of power. Mass and energy balance equations are developed for each species in the reactor. The pressure drop is modeled via the Ergun equation. Simulations are conducted in MATLAB to determine the effect of process parameters (e.g. ammonia inlet, inlet pressure, inlet temperature) on the production of hydrogen. For a range of catalyst particle sizes considered, it is shown that the pressure drop is negligible. Energy is provided for the endothermic reaction via electrical heating. An appropriate PEM fuel cell stack is designed that generates 100 W of usable power plus the necessary power to electrically heat the reactor. An estimate for the cost of the overall system is presented.