variavel0=<b>AMIR ANTÔNIO MARTINS DE OLIVEIRA JR</b> - amirol@emc.ufsc.br UFSC
<b>Rafael Girardi Pulgar</b> - rafael@cet.ufsc.br UFSC
<b>José Alexandre Matelli</b> - matelli@cet.ufsc.br UFSC
<b>Abstract.</b> In the last 10 years, fuel cells have emerged as a promising alternative for electricity generation. Although they present great advantages, such as high efficiency and low emissions, one of their disadvantages is the cost to obtain the hydrogen required for the electrochemical process. Hydrogen for fuel cells is generally obtained from the reforming process of hydrocarbon fuels. Here, two different reforming processes of natural gas are evaluated and compared: steam reforming and autothermal reforming. The autothermal reforming process is conducted under an ideal operational condition, i.e., the operation point is set at the thermoneutrality point, DHr=0. The steam reforming is modelled considering an equilibrium mechanism with two reactions: the reforming itself and the water gas shift reaction. To compare the performance of these reforming processes, a fuel cell is fuelled with the products of the autothermal reforming and steam reforming. The global efficiency, i.e. the ratio between the useful electrical power generated by the cell and the energy (lower heating value) of the natural gas entering the reforming reactor, is the observed parameter.
<b>Keywords.</b> Reforming process, Natural Gas, Fuel cell.