Experimental analysis of an integrated biomass gasification and PEM fuel cell system

摘要

PEM fuel cell is an electrochemical system that converts the chemical energy of hydrogen directly into electricity and is widely used as an energy source for ground vehicle applications. This paper aims to analyze the technical aspects of integrated biomass gasification and PEM fuel cell systems for electricity production which is focused on gasifier operating conditions and their effect on the cell voltage. To evaluate the effect of gasifier operating conditions (gasification temperature, steam/biomass ratio, equivalence ratio, and biomass particle size) on cell voltage, an experimental work has also been carried. The results show that for all catalysts, the cell voltage increased rapidly as the reaction temperature increased from 500 degrees C to 650 degrees C, then tended to a slow growth due to the increase of reaction rates, enabling the fast decomposition of biomass into clean syngas (H-2 and CO), especially at the initial stage of reaction.