Patent ID: 7226490

Claim:
An apparatus for converting hydrocarbon fuel into a hydrogen rich gas comprising: a heat exchanger for heating a hydrocarbon fuel into a heated hydrocarbon fuel; a desulfurization reactor including a catalyst for reacting the heated hydrocarbon fuel under desulfurization conditions to produce a substantially desulfurized hydrocarbon fuel, wherein the hydrocarbon fuel becomes a hydrocarbon fuel feed to a manifold; a manifold for mixing the substantially desulfurized hydrocarbon fuel with an oxygen containing gas to give a fuel mixture; an autothermal reactor including a catalyst for reacting the fuel mixture under autothermal reforming conditions to give a hydrogen containing gaseous mixture; a water gas shift reactor including a catalyst for reacting the hydrogen containing gaseous mixture under water gas shift reaction conditions to give an intermediate hydrogen containing gaseous mixture with a substantially reduced carbon monoxide content; and a selective oxidation reactor including a catalyst for reacting the intermediate hydrogen containing gaseous mixture under selective oxidation reaction conditions to produce the hydrogen rich gas; wherein the heat exchanger and the desulfurization reactor are disposed in a first compartment and the autothermal reactor is disposed in a second compartment.