Transient CO Preferential Oxidation (PrOx) for PEM Fuel Cell

To avoid degradation, the Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell requires less than 10 to 50 ppmv carbon monoxide (CO) in the reformate stream. A transient Preferential Oxidation (PrOx) system was developed for reformer operating powers between 5 kW and 60 kW thermal. Testing results show that steady state reformate CO concentration from the PrOx is less than 6 ppmv for a variety of inlet CO concentrations. Furthermore, the PrOx is capable of maintaining CO under 10 ppmv during reformer transient conditions such as power turn up and turn down.