Flex-fuel hydrogen reformer for IC engines and gas turbines

An on-board Flex-Fuel H2 Reforming device, comprising:

• (a) one or more parallel autothermal reformers (ATRs) to produce a reformate comprising H2 and CO from a fuel, said fuel comprising a hydrocarbon, a bio-fuel, or combinations thereof;
• (b) at least one of a supported catalyst or an unsupported catalyst disposed in the ATRs, the at least one supported or unsupported catalyst including one or more of Pt, Pd, Rh, Ir, Os, and Ru;
• (c) an ATR reformer fuel mixture inlet in fluid communication with the one or more parallel ATRs to provide reactants thereto, said inlet comprising at least one of a liquid fuel loop, a gas fuel loop, a water supply loop, an air supply loop, a water electrolyzer loop, an exhaust gas recycle (EGR) loop, a water recycle loop and a reformate recycle loop, the reactants including i) water and/or steam, ii) an oxidant and iii) said fuel;
• (d) an automatic control system operably connected with the fuel mixture inlet and the one or more parallel ATRs, said automatic control system configured to maintain a selected O2/C ratio, a selected H2O/C ratio, a selected CO2/C ratio and a maximum ATR reaction temperature below 1200° C., the automatic control system including a flow control curve to regulate the reformate output, wherein a single point on the flow control curve provides a group of pre-calibrated and stored set points for a respective flow controller associated with each reactant,
• (e) a reformate vessel to store the reformate produced in the one or more parallel ATRs;
• and
• (f) a dry reformate storage vessel in fluid communication with the reformate vessel to store a dried form of the reformate, and wherein the flow control curve regulates a total reformate output as a function of the pressure in the dry reformate storage vessel.