Refuelling system for hydrogen-powered vehicles
Sunday, 16 March, 2003
Technology to connect conventional fuel filling stations to the gas supply system, enabling them to refuel hydrogen-powered vehicles of the future, is being developed in a project led by researchers of the Warwick Process Technology Group, part of Warwick University, England.
The three-year Hydrofueler research programme, costing about 1.8 million pounds and funded by the European Commission, has already drawn interest from Exxon Mobil and BMW.
One of the problems with using hydrogen-powered cars is how to keep their fuel-cells supplied with a ready source of hydrogen. The researchers believe that much of the necessary infrastructure already exists. The new technology can be fitted to existing filling stations which will use it to produce hydrogen from the normal natural-gas pipeline supply system.
To do this a number of problems need to be overcome. In particular, how to produce the hydrogen from natural gas in a confined space, using a simple automated remotely controlled process.
Very large-scale industrial processes already exist to produce hydrogen from natural gas but these technologies cannot be scaled down to the compact size needed to be practical in a filling station context, and the costs of using these processes would be prohibitive.
The researchers propose using a combination of innovative heat-exchange technology, novel ways of managing and using heat and pressure in a reactor, novel compact plated-reactor technology, and new-coated nanocrystaline catalysts to greatly increase the efficiency of the reactions.
These techniques will, the researchers believe, enable them to create a reactor about "the size of three average desks" and hence capable of being installed on the typical fuel station forecourt. This will produce hydrogen cost-effectively and without any emissions problems.
Another advantage of the technology proposed by the team is that the process employs a number of stages at which hydrogen reaches different rates of purity. Different sorts of fuel-cells will require different mixes of hydrogen and the reactor can meet these needs by simultaneously producing what might be described as "2-star, 3-star and 4-star hydrogen".
The researchers are also considering using the technology to carry out hydrogen production in car engines and even as a possible replacement for large, industrial, hydrogen production processes.
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