Dynamic modeling and controllability analysis of an ethanol reformer for fuel cell application

This work presents a controllability analysis of a low temperature ethanol reformer based on a cobalt catalyst for fuel cell application. The study is based on a non-linear dynamic model of a reformer which operates in three separate stages: ethanol dehydrogenation to acetaldehyde and hydrogen, acetaldehyde steam reforming, and water–gas-shift reaction. The controllability analysis is focused on the rapid dynamics due to mass balances and is based on a linearization of the complex non-linear model of the reformer. RGA, CN and MRI analysis tools are applied to the linear model suggesting that a good performance can be obtained with decentralized control for frequencies up to 0.1 rad s−1.