US-Germany Cooperative Research: Synthesis of Hydrogen from Diesel Fuels

University Of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis MN

Investigators

Abstract

0339819 Schmidt This award supports Lanny Schmidt and students from the University of Minnesota-Twin Citiesin a collaboration with Olaf Deutschmann of the Institute of Chemical Engineering at the University of Karlruhe, Germany. The funding establishes a collaborative program for modeling the partial oxidation of diesel fuel and its components to produce hydrogen and light hydrocarbons for fuel cells and related applications. This program will build on past collaborations between the principal investigators on developing detailed models partial oxidation of methane. These will include mechanism development, simulations of experimental results, and predictions of process behavior. The models constructed will provide fundamental information on mechanisms of hydrocarbon reactions. There are currently no detailed models of hydrocarbon oxidation reactions, either homogeneous or on surfaces, which have been developed in sufficient detail for simulating fuel reforming to hydrogen. Development of these models will also have significant fundamental impact on interpreting experimental results and on theoretical bases for kinetic model development. Furthermore, the models will be crucial in developing technologies for fuel reforming for fuel cells because they require processing of complex mixtures of alkanes. Such models are essential in designing these important energy-producing technologies.