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Design and operation of advanced reactors such as fuel reformers require reliable micro-kinetic models that capture the dynamics of the reaction. The negative temperature coefficient phenomenon causes a reduction in mixture temperature for increasing inlet temperatures. However, micro-kinetic models available in the literature have not been critically evaluated for their ability to capture this phenomenon. Consequently, the ability to predict system behavior for particular application situations, such as in the presence of certain diluents or at high pressures, is largely missing. In this work, we adapt multiple reaction mechanisms from literature and compare them for methane oxidation over a wide range of pressures and temperatures. Using reaction path analysis and sensitivity analysis, we find that the C2 formation through the recombination pathway is chiefly responsible for negative temperature coefficient behavior. With this insight, the dependence of steam addition and pressure on is also discussed.

In power networks where multiple fuel cell stacks are employed to deliver the required power, optimal sharing of the power demand between different stacks is an important problem. This is because the total current collectively produced by all the stacks is directly proportional to the fuel utilization, through stoichiometry. As a result, one would like to produce the required power while minimizing the total current produced. In this paper, an optimization formulation is proposed for this power distribution control problem. An algorithm that identifies the globally optimal solution for this problem is developed. Through an analysis of the KKT conditions, the solution to the optimization problem is decomposed into on-line and on-line computations. The on-line computations reduce to simple equation solving. For an application with a specific v-i function derived from data, we show that analytical solutions exist for on-line computations. We also discuss the wider applicability of the proposed approach for similar problems in other domains.