PCI - Fuel Cell Oxidizer System

PCI designs and builds anode gas oxidizers, fuel reformer start burners, inerting/purge burners, and hydrogen recombiners for PEM and SOFC systems. These are custom engineered to fit, form and function for each application, spanning ~100 W_th to 300 kW_th. Microlith® substrate based hardware typically is ~10x lighter, ~20x more compact, and ~30x faster in transient response than conventional options, making startup, shutdown, and upset handling simpler and more efficient.

Startup Simplified

As the fuel cell industry evolves, technical obstacles continue to present themselves. Dangerous and complex system startups are examples of problems that developers must constantly manage.  PCI’s inerting burner and fuel reformer start burner are two innovations that will help alleviate the innate difficulties of fuel cell system startups.  Our inerting burners ensure that hydrogen left in the system is safely oxidized prior to startup to prevent potentially dangerous system startup failures.  PCI’s fuel reformer start burners use unique catalytic technology to effectively provide appropriate levels of preheat for efficient fuel reforming. This technique can be extremely effective when preparing more traditional fuels such as diesel for fuel cell use.

Anode portions of fuel cells are often unable to employ all available hydrogen which can create potentially dangerous levels of flammable emissions.  PCI’s anode gas oxidizer uses an innovative catalytic technology to not only oxidize these volatile tail-gas emissions, but to recycle waste heat.  This recycled heat can boost overall system efficiency and provide a valuable heat source for other accessory applications.

Proven Emissions Performance

Designs are fuel flexible across diesel, JP-8/JP-5, natural gas, biofuels, propane, methanol, ethanol, hydrogen, and anode exhaust, supporting both development labs and fielded systems.

Beyond fuel cell BOP, PCI’s work includes fuel flexible, low emissions burners for portable power and specialty platforms, and burner development to stabilize variable-Btu by-product gases in bio-energy processes, translating experience to performance on off-spec or mixed fuel streams that test stands often encounter.