Group Actions
Engagement
  • Author Author: Catwell
  • Date Created: Date Created
  • Views 1526 views
  • Likes 4 likes
  • Comments 5 comments
Related
Recommended

Membrane technology to fuel cars with hydrogen beyond expectations

Catwell

image

A new membrane technology uses a process to extract hydrogen from ammonia to fuel cars. The CSIRO team hard at work on the membrane technology. (Photo via CSIRO)

 

In the never-ending quest to create fuel-efficient and eco-friendly cars, hydrogen fuel seems like a great option. Unfortunately, it presents a whole mess of problems, like being highly flammable, figuring how to store it, and being difficult to ship due to its low density. These issues prevent hydrogen from being progressed as a fuel source until now. A new membrane technology developed by Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIRO) may have solved these problems.

 

The research team recently developed a membrane technology to refuel cars using ammonia.  How it works is the metallic membrane separates hydrogen from ammonia, while making sure the hydrogen is of an ultra-high purity by blocking other gases. It’s similar to the process used to transform hydrogen into ammonia but reversed. The resulting ammonia can be shipped to refueling depots where the hydrogen is extracted using the membrane in a low-energy process.

 

So does this actually work? Yes, it does. Recently CSIRO road tested the technology in two purpose-built hydrogen cells cars. The vehicles, a Toyota Mirai and Hyundai Nexo, were successfully refueled in minutes with a range up to twice that of electric cars that run on batteries. This marks the first time hydrogen cell cars have been fueled using hydrogen derived from ammonia.

 

"This is a watershed moment for energy, and we look forward to applying CSIRO innovation to enable this exciting renewably-sourced fuel and energy storage medium a smoother path to market," says CSIRO CEO Dr. Larry Marshall. "I'm delighted to see strong collaboration and the application of CSIRO know-how to what is a key part of the overall energy mix."

 

Using hydrogen to fuel cars is ideal since they don’t produce pollution and only shed water. And unlike electric cars, they can refuel quickly and travel further. The hydrogen fuel Mirai had a range of 550 kilometers (340 meters). The team is working on making the range even longer.

 

With successful test runs in the bag, CSIRO is looking ahead to the future. They want to create several larger-scaled demonstrations both in Australia and abroad to create a larger export industry. They’re also working on other parts of the hydrogen technology chain, such as water electrolysis and hydrogen production.

 

The technology is still being developed in Australia, but hydrogen-powered cars are a bug focus in South Korea. Hyundai, which is based in South Korea, has a five-year plan to roll out 16,000 vehicles on the road. Meanwhile. Toyota wants to import the Mirai in Australia as soon as 2019 after a three-year trial of five hydrogen-powered cars locally since 2016. But the rollout won’t be easy seeing as existing hydrogen cars cost about the same as electric cars, with more expensive fuel. With hydrogen prices higher than gas, the price will need to come down before hydrogen cars are introduced to the masses.

  • in reply to jkirk3279

    Semantics aside, oil is the source for a wide variety of fuels and lubricants.

     

    Yes Hydrogen is important, but you also need oxidizers to support efficient combustion.

     

    Hydrocarbon fuels are fairly easy to store and safely transport.

     

    The problem with bacteria is the time it takes them to efficiently create useful fuel from whatever they consume.

     

    Granted, it took a very long process to create oil and coal. The real issue is that we need to find other methods of extracting the stored energy. The current thermodynamic process is very inefficient, but still superior to electric vehicles.

     

    So it is really about energy extraction. Hydrogen is just what we know how to use, but that can change with a better understanding of the chemical reactions and technology to get directly at the energy and use it for our purposes.

     

    DAB

  • in reply to DAB

    Oil isn't really fuel.

     

    It's just storage for hydrogen. 

     

    Methane molecules catalyzed with Cobalt form Methanol.

     

    It's a stable liquid that stores hydrogen well.

     

    Butanol is a step farther, produced by bacteria that could be fed on sewer sludge.

     

    The first stage bacteria make butyric acid, the second stage make the liquid Butanol.

     

    In every case it's about the hydrogen.

  • This is very interesting, but there are so many engineering concepts covered very quickly.  I realize you can't explain everything in a short posting.  You mention that the membrane separates ammonia and hydrogen.  There's a lot going on there, several steps involved, all happening simultaneously. The information that the membrane is metal in it is important.  The metal can dis-associate ammonia (NH3) into hydrogen (H2) and nitrogen (N2). 

    2-NH3 ------------------> 1-N2 + 3-H2.

                   catalyst

     

    Then the membrane can let the small molecule (hydrogen) through, separating the components.  Sounds like an interesting membrane.

    Ammonia is a good source for H2, giving us those 3 molecules hydrogen from only 2 molecules ammonia, very useful.  No pollution, yes.  Nitrogen is 79% of the Earth's air so there's no pollution there.  And in the car's fuel cell, it combines H2 and oxygen O2 into water, no pollution there.  Hydrogen cars that use a tank of H2 instead of NH3 as the fuel are the competition, along with electric cars. Each choice has advantages and disadvantages.  H2 is, as mentioned, highly flammable.  For a hydrogen tank in the car, there's the choice of liquid H2 or compressed H2.  I assume the ammonia tank is liquid ammonia, at normal temperatures.  Ammonia has disadvantages too.  A leak can be a problem for humans.  What is the expected source for the ammonia?  Often it comes from the similar source as hydrogen, a reformer process.   So there are many advantages and disadvantages for any fuel choice you make.

  • Hydrogen, like any fuel is perfectly safe until it is mixed with oxygen or some other catalyst.

    If this technology works, then it just depends upon the rate at which the hydrogen can be harvested and over what time frame before it would be a viable fuel.

     

    As Donald Lane pointed out, concentrated ammonia is nasty stuff. That alone makes it much less attractive than gasoline or diesel.

     

    It would make more sense to combine the hydrogen from the ammonia process with methane to produce a good stable hydrocarbon fuel, but it still depends upon the cost effectiveness.

     

    You just cannot beat oil as a source of fuel.

     

    DAB

  • An ammonia powered car was built many years ago, but was never really progressed. In high levels of concentrations, presumably required for this application, ammonia isn't that good a product to have around.

     

    Youtube - ammonia powered car

     

    Kind regards