A Plasma-Based Multi-Fuel Reformer

Natural gas is an ideal feedstock for hydrogen reformers in the United States because it is inexpensive, hydrogen rich, and readily available in the United States. Oversees, natural gas is not readily available; however JP-8, the NATO single fuel for the battlefield is readily available anywhere the Air Force would be deployed. Hydrogen reformers exist today that utilize either natural gas or JP-8 as a feedstock, but no single reformer exists that can reformer both natural gas and JP-8. Lynntech proposes to develop a multi-fuel plasma-based reformer for Air Force use. Lynntech's proposed plasma-based multi-fuel reformer will produce 80 to 90% hydrogen in the reformate stream, increasing efficiency and minimizing the effort required to purify the hydrogen to PEM fuel cell quality. Additionally, Lynntech proposes to utilize the energy of the "waste" carbon to produce electricity which will further increase the efficiency of the reformer system. Lynntech has worked in the plasma-based reformer arena for five years and is currently developing single-fuel reformers that produce 80-90% hydrogen gas in the reformate and utilize energy recovery from the carbon to increase efficiency.