Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have
developed a compact and rugged microchannel distillation unit to
create a light fraction of JP-8, the standard military fuel. The
JP-8 light fraction is then reacted in a catalytic process
called hydrodesulfurization, in order to remove the sulfur from
the fuel. Conventional technology utilizes hydrogen as the co-
reactant with JP-8 to power the process, but it is not available
in the field. Syngas can be generated by steam reforming of the
purified fuel. Most of the syngas is further purified for use by
the fuel cell, but a fraction of the syngas is diverted to the
hydrodesulfurization unit. The use of syngas creates some
challenges, but it appears that they have been mostly overcome
in the PNNL process, and syngas performs almost as well as pure
hydrogen. Gas phase operation of the process allows significant
increase in throughput and decrease in operating pressure
compared with conventional technology. Residual sulfur
concentration in the hydrodesulf