Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Mohammed E H Sennoun

William Henry Pettit

Gerald E Voecks

Daniel P Miller

Rodney Lynn Borup

An autothermal reformer is provided for a fuel cell system utilizing one volume and a plurality of inlets for both start-up and normal operation. In start-up mode, thermal combustion is employed for heating the catalyst reformation section of the reformer. Two inlets are used to feed air and fuel into the system, which are mixed and ignited in the common volume. Once the catalyst has reached light-off temperature, a second set of inlets provide air, steam and fuel into the common volume. The mixture then passes into the catalytic reformation system.

Multi-port autothermal reformer

A compact autothermal (partial oxidation and steam reforming) fuel reactor is provided for implementation with a fuel cell system. The reactor includes a premixing chamber for premixing a volume of air, steam and fuel into an effluent, a thermal POX reactor, a first stage reforming segment, a post-premix chamber, and a second stage reforming segment. Further provided are a water/fuel vaporizer for supplying steam and fuel as a gas to the premix chamber and an airflow cavity disposed about the reactor for pre-heating air supplied to the premix chamber. The thermal POX segment operates during an initial start-up period for pre-heating the other components of the reactor. Once the other components achieve an operation temperature, the first and second stage reforming segments catalytically reform the effluent. The premix and post-premix chambers enable variance in the O/C and S/C ratios to be achieved as the effluent is reformed through the multiple stages.

Compact partial oxidation/steam reactor with integrated air preheater, fuel and water vaporizer

The present invention is an improved a combustor incorporating a pre-mix/pre-evaporation chamber arranged and configured to produce both a cool portion and a hot portion that cooperate to vaporize a liquid fuel to produce a lean to low-rich combustion mixture that is ejected from chamber into the combustor where is then ignited to produce a stable non-sooting flame maintained substantially within a combustion zone that yields a clean hot exhaust stream for heating downstream process components or processes such as one or more components of an autothermal reformer (ATR).

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Rochester, NY, United States of America

Mohammed E H Sennoun