Alkyl polyglycerol emulsion compositions for fuel cell reformer start-up
AssigneeExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company
InventorsRamesh Varadaraj, Paul Joseph Berlowitz
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Abstract
The present invention relates to emulsion compositions for starting a reformer of a fuel cell system. In particular, the invention includes emulsion compositions comprising hydrocarbon fuel, water and alkyl polyglycerol surfactants for starting a reformer of a fuel cell system.
Claims17
In a fuel cell system comprising a reformer to produce a hydrogen containing gas for use in a fuel cell stack, the improvement comprising:
- feeding to the reformer, at start-up, an emulsion composition comprising
- at least 40 wt % of hydrocarbon,
- from 30 to 60 wt % of water, and
- from 0.01 to 5 wt % of at least one surfactant selected from the group consisting of alkyl polyglycerol mono ester and alkyl polyglycerol diester and mixtures thereof, and represented by the respective formulae
- R—CO—O—CH2—CHOH—CHOH—(CHOH—CHOH—CHOH)n—CHOH—CHOH—CH2OH
- and
- R—CO—O—CH2—CHOH—CHOH—(CHOH—CHOH—CHOH)n—CHOH—CHOH—CH2—O—CO—R
- wherein R is an alkyl group of 2 to 26 carbon atoms and n is an integer from about 0 to 15 and mixtures thereof.
A method to prepare a bicontinuous emulsion comprising a coexisting mixture of at least 60 vol % of a hydrocarbon-in-water macro emulsion and from 1 to 40 vol % of a water-in-hydrocarbon macro emulsion the method comprising:
- mixing at mixing energy in the range of 0.15×10−5 to 0.15×10−3 kW/liter of fluid
- at least 40 wt % of hydrocarbon,
- from 30 to 60 wt % of water, and
- from 0.01 to 5 wt % of at least one surfactant selected from the group consisting of alkyl polyglycerol mono ester and alkyl polyglycerol diester and mixtures thereof, and represented by the respective formulae
- R—CO—O—CH2—CHOH—CHOH—(CHOH—CHOH—CHOH)n—CHOH—CHOH—CH2OH
- and
- R—CO—O—CH2—CHOH—CHOH—(CHOH—CHOH—CHOH)n—CHOH—CHOH—CH2—O—CO—R
- wherein R is an alkyl group of 2 to 26 carbon atoms and n is an integer from about 0 to 15 and mixtures thereof.
A bicontinuous emulsion comprising a coexisting mixture of at least 60 vol % of a hydrocarbon-in-water macro emulsion and from 1 to 40 vol % of a water-in-hydrocarbon macro emulsion prepared by mixing at mixing energy in the range of 0.15×10−5 to 0.15×10−3 kW/liter of fluid,
- at least 40 wt % of hydrocarbon,
- from 30 to 60 wt % of water, and
- from 0.01 to 5 wt % of at least one surfactant selected from the group consisting of alkyl polyglycerol mono ester and alkyl polyglycerol diester and mixtures thereof, and represented by the respective formulae
- R—CO—O—CH2—CHOH—CHOH—(CHOH—CHOH—CHOH)n—CHOH—CHOH—CH2OH
- and
- R—CO—O—CH2—CHOH—CHOH—(CHOH—CHOH—CHOH)n—CHOH—CHOH—CH2—O—CO—R
- wherein R is an alkyl group of 2 to 26 carbon atoms and n is an integer from about 0 to 15 and mixtures thereof.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.