Patent ID: 9440851
Filing Date: 2016-09-13
CPC Classification: B01J,C01B,F02C,Y02P

Claim Text:
1. A method of operating an on-board Flex-Fuel H 2 Generator comprising: a). providing one or more parallel autothermal (ATR) reformers for producing H b). providing one automatic control system comprising a control computer and microprocessors, flow meters/controllers, valves, pumps, sensors and thermocouples; c). providing to the one or more reformers a stream of reactants of an inlet fuel mixture comprising at least one oxidant, at least one fuel and at least one water/steam, wherein the reactants are selected from a reactant supply group consisting of a liquid fuel loop, a gas fuel loop, a water supply loop, an air supply loop, a water electrolyzer loop, an exhaust gas recycle (EGR) loop, a water recycle loop and a reformate recycle loop; d). reacting said stream of the inlet fuel mixture over said catalysts inside the one or more ATR reformers to produce a reformate containing H e). providing one or more vessels/manifolds for storing condensed water from the one or more reformers and also storing said reformate produced from the one or more ATR reformers at a pressure between 1 to 100 atmospheres, which is used by a downstream IC engine or gas turbine; f). providing one or more flow control curves defined by pressure in the one or more storage vessels as a function of reformer output capacity for regulating each reactants flow rate, the reformate composition, the one or more reformer's start-up/shutdown and the total reformer's flow output, wherein: f.1). a single point on a given control curve supplies: f.2). multiple points on the same control curve are capable of producing a series of different flow outputs with the same reformate composition; f.3). multiple different pre-calibrated control curves are used to provide different reformer inlet fuel mixtures, and are used by the same reformer to produce H