HIGH PERFORMANCE FUEL PROCESSING SYSTEM FOR FUEL CELL POWER PLANT

摘要

A fuel processing system (FPS) (110) is provided for a fuel cell power plant (115) having a fuel cell stack assembly (CSA) (56). The FPS (110) includes a water gas shift (WGS) reaction section (12, 120) for receiving hydrocarbon reformate containing carbon monoxide (CO) and reducing the concentration of CO in the reformate via the shift reaction, and a preferred oxidation (PROX) section (40) for further reducing the concentration of CO to a level acceptable for operating the CSA (56). The FPS (110) is improved by the WGS section (12, 120) including a reactor (124) with a high activity catalyst for reducing the reformate CO concentration to a relatively low level, thereby relatively reducing the structural volume of the FPS (110). The high activity catalyst is active at temperatures as low as 250<0> C, and may be a noble-metal-on-ceria catalyst of Pt and Re on a nanocrystaline, cerium oxide-based support. Use of the catalyst in the WGS reactor (124) reduces the concentration of CO in the reformate to 2,000 ppmv, or less, and requires only a low temperature PROX reactor (46) for preferential oxidation in the FPS (110).