A novel compact methanol steam dual-reformer concept for rapid start-up of SOFC systems

In this study, a 1 kW compact methanol steam dual-reformer arrangement is proposed to improve the start-up performance of SOFC systems and different configurations are categorized based on the difference in partitioned geometric design. A 3-D CFD transient reformer model is developed to numerically investigate the start-up period of different reformer configurations. The results demonstrate that the new concept significantly reduces the start-up time of the reformer due to reduced heat losses, the addition of precious metal catalysts, and the effective utilization of heat-concentrated areas. In addition, the influence of the gas flow mode on the rapid start-up is analyzed, and counter-flow is found to be the more suitable choice for dual-reformers than co-flow. Finally, a hot start-up strategy considering the features of the new reformer design is proposed, and an SOFC stack model is established. By the co-simulation of the reformer and the fuel cell model, the feasibility of the strategy is proved. The interaction between dual-reformers and SOFC stacks is utilized, and the thermal start-up process of the reforming subsystem is reduced by about 400 s compared with the conventional single-reformer configuration.