Publications

Performance characterization of a hydrogen catalytic heater

Johnson, Terry A.; Kanouff, Michael P.

This report describes the performance of a high efficiency, compact heater that uses the catalytic oxidation of hydrogen to provide heat to the GM Hydrogen Storage Demonstration System. The heater was designed to transfer up to 30 kW of heat from the catalytic reaction to a circulating heat transfer fluid. The fluid then transfers the heat to one or more of the four hydrogen storage modules that make up the Demonstration System to drive off the chemically bound hydrogen. The heater consists of three main parts: (1) the reactor, (2) the gas heat recuperator, and (3) oil and gas flow distribution manifolds. The reactor and recuperator are integrated, compact, finned-plate heat exchangers to maximize heat transfer efficiency and minimize mass and volume. Detailed, three-dimensional, multi-physics computational models were used to design and optimize the system. At full power the heater was able to catalytically combust a 10% hydrogen/air mixture flowing at over 80 cubic feet per minute and transfer 30 kW of heat to a 30 gallon per minute flow of oil over a temperature range from 100 C to 220 C. The total efficiency of the catalytic heater, defined as the heat transferred to the oil divided by the inlet hydrogen chemical energy, was characterized and methods for improvement were investigated.