Hydrogen generation assemblies, hydrogen purification devices, and their components, and methods of manufacturing those assemblies, devices, and components are disclosed. In some embodiments, the devices may include an insulation base having insulating material and at least one passage that extends through the insulating material. In some embodiments, the at least one passage may be in fluid communication with a combustion region.

Methods comprising: evaporating a catalyst source to produce a catalyst gas; condensing the catalyst gas to produce a catalyst vapor comprising catalyst droplets suspended in a gas phase; and contacting the catalyst vapor with a hydrocarbon gas to catalyze a decomposition reaction of the hydrocarbon gas into hydrogen gas and carbon. And, systems comprising: a catalyst source evaporator that provides a first stream to a reactor; a hydrocarbon source that provides a second stream to the reactor; a cooling column coupled to the reactor via a third stream comprising hydrogen, catalyst liquid, solid carbon, optionally catalyst gas, and optionally unreacted hydrocarbon gas such that the cooling column receives the third stream from the reactor; and wherein the cooling column has effluent streams that include (a) a fourth stream that comprises hydrogen and optionally catalyst gas and (b) a fifth stream that comprises catalyst liquid.

Methods comprising: evaporating a catalyst source to produce a catalyst gas; condensing the catalyst gas to produce a catalyst vapor comprising catalyst droplets suspended in a gas phase; and contacting the catalyst vapor with a hydrocarbon gas to catalyze a decomposition reaction of the hydrocarbon gas into hydrogen gas and carbon. And, systems comprising: a catalyst source evaporator that provides a first stream to a reactor; a hydrocarbon source that provides a second stream to the reactor; a cooling column coupled to the reactor via a third stream comprising hydrogen, catalyst liquid, solid carbon, optionally catalyst gas, and optionally unreacted hydrocarbon gas such that the cooling column receives the third stream from the reactor; and wherein the cooling column has effluent streams that include (a) a fourth stream that comprises hydrogen and optionally catalyst gas and (b) a fifth stream that comprises catalyst liquid.

A reformer of the present disclosure includes a reformer body having a cylindrical shape that carries out a reforming reaction by a raw fuel gas and water supplied thereto, the reformer body including therein a vaporization portion which generates steam and a reforming portion which reacts the steam generated in the vaporization portion with the raw fuel gas to generate a reformed gas, at least one of a convex portion and a rough portion having a higher degree of surface roughness than that of other portions, being disposed on at least one of an inner circumferential surface and an outer circumferential surface of the reformer body.

The invention relates to an energy generation unit comprising a high-temperature fuel cell stack (10), which is operated with liquid fuel, and a reformer (11) connected upstream of the fuel cell stack for processing the fuel, a recirculation line (13) for at least partially feeding back the anode exhaust gas into the reformer (1) and a device for feeding the liquid fuel into the anode exhaust gas. In accordance with the invention, the invention for feeding the fuel is in the form of an evaporator device (20), comprising a housing (21) which has an evaporator nonwoven (23) in the region of the fuel feed line (22), wherein the hot anode exhaust gas can be applied to said evaporator nonwoven from the recirculation line (13).

A reformer of the present disclosure includes a reformer body which has a cylindrical shape and extends horizontally, introducing raw fuel and water to perform a reforming reaction, the reformer body including therein a vaporization portion which generates steam, and a reforming portion which reacts the steam generated in the vaporization portion with raw fuel to generate a reformed gas; a raw fuel introduction pipe which introduces the raw fuel into the reformer body; a water introduction pipe including therein a water passage which introduces water into the reformer body; and a vaporization accelerating portion which is disposed in at least one of the vaporization portion and the water introduction pipe and accelerates vaporization of water in the vaporization portion.

Disclosed are a quick-start system for preparing hydrogen via aqueous methanol, and hydrogen preparation method. The system comprises a liquid storage container, a raw material feeding device, a quick-start device, a hydrogen preparation equipment and a membrane separation device; the quick-start device comprises a first start device and a second start device; the first start device comprises a first heating mechanism and a first gasification pipeline, the first gasification pipeline is wound around the first heating mechanism; one end of the first gasification pipeline is connected to the liquid storage container, and methanol is fed into the first gasification pipeline via the raw material feeding device, for the first heating mechanism to heat and gasify; the hydrogen preparation equipment comprises a reforming chamber; the second start device comprises a second gasification pipeline, a main body of the second gasification pipeline is disposed in the reforming chamber; the methanol output by the first gasification pipeline and/or the second gasification pipeline heats the second gasification pipeline while heating the reforming chamber, to gasify the methanol in the second gasification pipeline. The present invention can be quickly started, while having less energy consumption and good practicability.

A hydrogen generator and methods of generating hydrogen are described in which a hydride is hydrolyzed in a reaction chamber in an exothermic reaction by the addition of liquid water to be vaporized in the reaction chamber, and/or the added water is controlled in relation to the hydrogen generated according to a value x defined by equations, which, for a divalent metal, reads:
MH.sub.2+xH.sub.2O.fwdarw.(2x)MO+(x1)M(OH).sub.2+2H.sub.2,
wherein M symbolizing the divalent metal and x is preferred in the interval of 1.2 to 1.3. The equation as well as the values of x depend on the sort of hydride, i.e. whether a 1-, 2-, 3- or 4-valent hydride is applied. The hydrogen generator has a reaction chamber and an operably coupled water storage vessel acting also as condenser for recycled water.

A process for producing ethylene glycol and/or propylene glycol and/or glycerol in a continuous manner from a feed comprising a carbohydrate source in an aqueous liquid and hydrogen may include a reactor producing a liquid product flow out of the reactor and an off-gas, a downstream purification section comprising one or more distillation and/or evaporation units for subjecting the liquid product flow out of the reactor to one or more distillation and/or evaporation steps, and a hydrogen production section. The hydrogen production section may include a steam methane reformer (SMR) unit, a water gas shift reactor (WGS) unit, and a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) unit.

A solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system including a steam reformer, a hydrogen purification system, a pre-reformer, and a solid oxide fuel cell.