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from:
Technologue: H2 Go - "The fuel of the future" may not always be
Motor Trend Magazine - February, 2008
by Frank Markus
I swore off further coverage of fuel-cell vehicles until my first test
drive of a production prototype, quipping that "hydrogen is the fuel of the future-and always
will be." The darned stuff is simply too difficult to distribute, dispense, and store. Carrying
enough fuel on board to deliver the kind of range customers expect these days requires pricey,
bulky, (somewhat scary) tanks; compressing or liquefying it consumes too much energy.
Then I heard about Power+Energy's plan to power a fuel cell with conventional
gas, diesel, or E85. Hold on, you're thinking, didn't Chrysler try that in 1999? Yep. The
Commander concept carried what looked like a scale-model refinery under the hood, which involved
partial oxidation, steam reformation, and myriad other chemical processes to crack the hydrogen
out of gasoline, but enough carbon monoxide remained in the hydrogen stream to poison the
proton-exchange-membrane fuel cell, so the idea was abandoned.
Technologue: H2 Go - "The fuel of the future" may not always
be.
(Art by: Nigel
Buchanan )
Power+Energy is in the business of providing
equipment that purifies the usually "dirty" hydrogen generated as a byproduct of petroleum refining
from several thousand parts-per-million level of CO and other gook to less than
one-part-per-billion required for manufacturing LEDs and other electronics. To do this, the company
developed a palladium membrane that behaves like an ultra-fine-mesh screen through which only
hydrogen atoms-the smallest in the universe-can pass. (It's really a chemical process whereby the
alloy absorbs hydrogen ions, and a pressure differential across the membrane forces them
through.)
Here's the kicker: Using seed money from the
department of defense (which is keen to obtain hydrogen fuel cells that run on the conventional
fuels currently used on the battlefield), Power+Energy has modified the process to "purify" the
hydrogen out of vaporized gasoline, diesel, biofuels, ethanol, or E85. Operating at the same high
temperature (600 C/1100F) as the Commander's mini-refinery, this new system combines multiple steps
into one extremely compact one. The fuel is mixed with steam, vaporized, superheated and reformed
into H2, CH4, CO2, H2O, and CO. More steam then converts the CO to CO2. All this takes place at the
nano-level near the palladium-alloy membrane, and the small unit quickly achieves operating
temperature (by burning some of the fuel). The reformer also is said to react relatively quickly to
changing power demand, though it's generally understood that all fuel-cell vehicles will be
battery-electric hybrids, relying on the battery for instantaneous response.
Ah, but can we afford the palladium? In volume
production, the precious-metal content of the reformer should be little or no more than what goes
into the catalytic converter of an equivalent gasoline-powered vehicle, so palladium price/supply
issues shouldn't stymie this technology, and the price of the gas-tank and reformer should come in
below that of a 5000-10,000psi hydrogen-storage tank with none of the safety concerns.
A gallon of diesel fuel produces about 1 kg of
hydrogen, gasoline yields roughly 900 g, and the reformer extracts about 90 percent of the heating
value of the original liquid fuel as hydrogen. Running it through a state-of-the-art fuel cell with
46-percent efficiency will effectively double the fuel efficiency of a similar size/weight gasoline
car, cutting CO2 emissions in half and generating no NOX.
Power+Energy is on target to demonstrate a 5kW
ethanol-powered fuel-cell auxiliary power unit to the U.S. Navy in mid-2008 and anticipates strong
consumer demand for similar units to power refrigerated trailers and driver comfort items on
big-rig trucks when parked overnight. The development leap from large, essentially stationary
ship-based reformers to small, car-based ones capable of withstanding the temperature and
operational extremes of today's automotive environment isn't trivial-except by comparison with the
task of distributing and storing purified hydrogen.
Find this article at:
http://www.motortrend.com/features/editorial/112_0802_technologue
Article copyright: Copyright © Primedia Magazines,
Inc. All rights reserved. 02/2008.
About Power+Energy
Power & Energy is headquartered in
Pennsylvania, USA. Established in 1993, the company's mission is to enable the hydrogen economy
and promote energy efficiency through the application of micro-channel technologies. The company
provides a full range of micro-channel hydrogen purifiers to ultra-high purity users across the
U.S., Asia and Europe.
Power & Energy is leading the way to the
hydrogen economy with proprietary manufacturing and patented hydrogen purification, separation
and generation technologies. Power & Energy's Micro-Channel palladium-alloy hydrogen
purifiers purify any grade of hydrogen to nine-nines purity, meeting the most stringent
requirements for semiconductor fabrication processes, including light emitting diode
manufacture, solar cell manufacture and the manufacture of other compound and silicon
semiconductors. Power & Energy's Micro-Channel hydrogen purifiers are also ideal for
metallurgy, R&D, and instrumentation applications. Power & Energy's Micro-Channel
membrane systems can also be used to efficiently separate hydrogen from reformed fuels and
synthesis gas mixtures.
Power & Energy is now applying its hydrogen expertise to the fuel cell vehicle refueling
market. Power & Energy has recognized that highly compact, low cost, and efficient hydrogen
generators that can convert existing liquid fuels to hydrogen at the refueling station will enable
the rapid development of the hydrogen refueling infrastructure that fuel-cell vehicles will
require. The company's expertise in the design and manufacture of micro-channel gas processors
provides the basis for this exciting new venture.
For further information, contact Al Stubbmann, Power & Energy Inc., 106
Railroad Avenue, Ivyland, PA 18974-1449, e-mail al.s@powerandenergy.com or call
+1-610-217-0193.
CONTACT:
Albert Stubbmann
Power & Energy, Inc.
106 Railroad Drive
Ivyland, PA 18974-1449
USA
PHONE. 215-942-4600 ext 17
FAX. 215-942-9300
EMAIL: al.s@powerandenergy.com
WEB: http://www.powerandenergy.com
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