SBIR Phase I: Novel Catalyst Substrate for the High and Low Temperature Water Gas Shift Reactor

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目将开发紧凑型水煤气变换反应器(WGSR)，通过使用由多个超短通道长度(USCL)、高电池密度金属整体串联组成的新型催化剂基板设计，快速启动和加载。由于没有充分发展的边界层，这些USCL整体具有非常高的传热和传质系数；与传统的蜂窝整体载体相比，整体传质增加了约20倍。蜂窝密度高达每平方英寸2500个蜂窝，与蜂窝整体相比，单位体积的几何表面积(GSA)要高得多。传质性能的改善和GSA的增加意味着，与颗粒床或传统的蜂窝基质相比，反应器的尺寸和重量要小得多，在传质控制操作下，催化剂的利用率更高，这可以显著降低成本，特别是在使用贵金属催化剂的情况下。单独的USCL催化剂衬底元件的热质量非常低，再加上高的传热系数，提供了更好的瞬时响应和快速启动。建议的WGSR催化剂技术主要是作为集成燃料处理器系统的一部分，为汽车应用中的质子交换膜燃料电池生产氢气。拟议的技术提供了非常高的潜在成本机会，显著改善了WGSR组件的体积、重量和潜在成本，并为其他催化反应器(包括其他燃料处理器组件)提供了副产品应用。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop compact Water Gas Shift Reactors (WGSR) with rapid startup and load following through the use of a novel catalyst substrate design consisting of multiple Ultra Short Channel Length (USCL), high cell density metal monoliths in series. These USCL monoliths have very high heat and mass transfer coefficients due to the absence of fully developed boundary layers; this increases bulk mass transfer on the order of 20 fold over conventional honeycomb monolith supports. The high cell density, up to 2500 cells per square inch, results in a considerably higher Geometric Surface area (GSA) per unit volume compared to honeycomb monoliths. The improved transport properties and increased GSA translates into much smaller reactor size and weight compared to pellet bed or conventional honeycomb substrates and more efficient catalyst utilization under mass transfer controlled operation, which can lead to significant cost reductions, especially when using precious metal catalyst. The very low thermal mass of the individual USCL catalyst substrate elements combined with the high heat transfer coefficient gives improved transient response and fast startup.The proposed WGSR catalyst technology is primarily intended as part of an integrated fuel processor system to produce hydrogen for Proton exchange Membrane fuel cells in automotive applications. The proposed technology provides a very high potential benefit to cost opportunity, offering significant improvements in the WGSR component of volume, weight and potentially cost, as well as provides spin-off applications to other catalytic reactors (including other fuel processor components).