Journal of Power Sources 164 (2007) 336–343 Simulation of a hydrogen production and purification system for a PEM fuel-cell using bioethanol as raw material Pablo Giunta a , Carlos Mosquera b , Norma Amadeo a , Miguel Laborde a,∗ a Facultad de Ingenier´ıa, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Laboratorio de Procesos Catal´ıticos, Pabell´ on de Industrias, Ciudad Universitaria, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina b Facultad de Ingenier´ıa, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Departamento de F´ısica, 1063 Buenos Aires, Argentina Received 25 July 2006; received in revised form 24 August 2006; accepted 15 September 2006 Available online 22 November 2006 Abstract A process to produce “fuel-cell grade” hydrogen from ethanol steam reforming is analyzed from a thermodynamic point of view. The hydrogen purification process consists of WGS and COPROX reactors. Equations to evaluate the efficiency of the system, including the fuel cell, are presented. A heat exchange network is proposed in order to improve the exploitation of the available power. The effect of key variables such as the reformer temperature and the ethanol/water molar feed ratio on the fuel-cell efficiency is discussed. Results show that it is feasible to carry out the energy integration of the hydrogen catalytic production and purification—PEM fuel-cell system, using ethanol as raw material. The technology of “fuel-cell grade” hydrogen production using ethanol as raw material is a very attractive alternative to those technologies based in fossil fuels. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Hydrogen production and purification; Bioethanol; PEM fuel-cells 1. Introduction Fuel cells and hydrogen as a fuel can be a solution in the development of zero emission vehicles [1,2]. In addition, hydrogen is the future fuel, basically since its combustion only produces water. Nevertheless, some considerations must be made about this asseveration. Firstly, if the combustion of hydrogen is performed with air, nitrogen oxides will also be produced. Second, hydrogen is not free in Nature; this element is present in hydrocarbons and in the water. Energy has to be consumed in order to separate it from carbon (hydrocarbons) or from oxygen (water). When hydrogen is obtained from water the process used is the electrolysis, which consumes a significant amount of energy. Only if this energy is produced from renewable sources such as solar or wind energy, it can be said that hydrogen is obtained using a non-pollutant process. On the other hand, when hydrogen is obtained from hydrocarbon or alcohol steam reforming, carbon oxides are produced as well. Thus, the qualification of “clean” fuel is only true when ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +5411 4576 3240; fax: +5411 4576 3241. E-mail address: miguel@di.fcen.uba.ar (M. Laborde). the raw material is biomass, which consumes CO 2 during its growth. Ethanol presents several advantages related to natural avail- ability, storage and handling safety. It can be produced renew- ably from several biomass sources, including energy plants, waste materials from agro industries or forestry residue materi- als, organic fraction of municipal solid waste, etc. Besides the bioethanol-to-hydrogen system has the significant advantage of being nearly CO 2 neutral, since the carbon dioxide produced is consumed for biomass growth, thus offering a nearly closed carbon cycle. In summary, among the various processes and primary fuels that have been proposed in the production of hydrogen for fuel-cell applications, steam reforming of ethanol is the most attractive [3–8]. The new application of H 2 as a feed for fuel cells for mobile sources (PEM) requires that the anode inlet gas has a CO concentration lower than 20 ppm. Otherwise, the anode is poisoned and the cell efficiency abruptly drops. Hence, if H 2 is produced from hydrocarbons or alcohols, purification is required in order to reduce the CO levels to fuel-cell requirements. So far, the most technologically feasible purification train consists of two water gas shift converters (WGS) and a latter step of remaining CO elimination (COPROX reactor) [9]. 0378-7753/$ – see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2006.09.091