Can Gasoline Jump-Start Hydrogen?

Business Week ^ | Otis Port

[milestogo]

Can Gasoline Jump-Start Hydrogen?

Researchers say a gizmo called a reformer can extract the clean fuel from good old unleaded -- and give fuel-cell cars double the mileage

Environmentalists dream of energy-efficient cars that run on hydrogen, with tailpipes spewing out nothing more noxious than water vapor. Judging from the popularity of Toyota's ( ) Prius hybrid -- a kind of car with both an electric motor and a gasoline engine -- a fuel-cell-powered all-electric car that gets equal or better mileage from hydrogen would seem a surefire hit.

The big drawback: Where do you go to fill 'er up with hydrogen? How about any existing gas station. Gasoline has plenty of hydrogen locked up inside it, and researchers have developed so-called reformers that can extract it. Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory think they have it. They're developing an under-the-hood steam reformer on steroids. "It can produce large amounts of hydrogen from gasoline vapors in only 12 seconds," says chief engineer Greg Whyatt.

Even more magical: The extracted hydrogren actually has a higher energy value than gasoline, thanks in part to the extra hydrogen atoms liberated from the steam. That means a big bump in mileage. In fact, says Whyatt, "compared to an internal-combustion engine, we're projecting that a fuel-cell-powered car with our steam reformer would get at least twice the mileage" from the same amount of gasoline.

Since fuel cells generate clean electricity through a chemical reaction with no combustion involved, fuel-cell cars could substantially reduce the world's consumption of oil while drastically curbing pollution.


Shrinking a microchannel steam reformer into a bread-box-size system for cars has been a lot tougher, says Whyatt. Ultimately, he adds, a reformer that can supply hydrogen to a 50-kilowatt fuel cell should take up less than one cubic foot. It may take a couple years to perfect. But by yearend, Whyatt expects to have a small prototype -- sufficient for a 2-kw fuel cell -- ready for Detroit to check out.

[mudblood]

Its a good solution, privided you can still burn the Gas. This is kind of a Hybrid idea, I think. Actually, if you couple it with the hybrid auto-stop feature (I know its in the Insight) and the regenerative breaking, you'd have an amazing car. The car would also be able to use hydrogen-peroxide, or whatever hydrogen stations spring up. This would be a great way to get them into the market - I'd buy them. I'd be happy seeing people drive them - both for the environment (arguably, but can't hurt) and because it removes our dependence upon OPEC. Also, and nobody really talks about this, I think its a crime to burn fossil fuels because they are better used to make plastics and other materials.

[Reelect President Dubya]

The big drawback: Where do you go to fill 'er up with hydrogen?

Wrong.

The first big drawback is: Which energy source do you use to generate the hydrogen?

The second big drawback is: It takes more energy to produce the hydrogen than you get back when you burn it.

[RightWhale]

This plan is bogus. The idea with hydrogen is to avoid using gasoline and to thereby free us from imported oil.

[FreeperinRATcage]

Well, with this there's no need to burn the gas. Its already being used as a fuel supply.

The reason you need to burn gas in todays gas/elec hybrids is due to the limited storage capacity of the storage cell. With the reformer, the gasoline is the storage cell.

[Reelect President Dubya]

It may take a couple years to perfect.

In a couple of more years cold fusion will be perfected and we won't need to use a hydrogen process that requires a couple more years to perfect. </sarcasm>

[NaughtiusMaximus]

The stone age didn't end because they ran out of stones. The oil age won't end because we run out of oil.

Let's go for it. The sooner we can get loose of foreign entanglements with OPEC the sooner they can go back to the 12th Century and the sooner we can be energy self-sufficient.

[FreeperinRATcage]

And the problem with that is there is already a massive gasoline distrinution system in place. Nothing like it exist for any other power source except electricity, and thats impractical due to the limitations on storage cell capacity.

[cold_dead_fingers]

And what about the danger of scooting around all over the place in a much more dangerous substance than gasoline? What if there was an accident? Could this cause a big problem?

[JmyBryan]

Theoretically, demand would increase at a lesser rate and at some point decrease as more implemented the technology.

[KellyAdmirer]

It may take a couple years to perfect.

Whenever they say that, take the number they give and multiply it to power of 4 and you get a rough estimate when somebody might actually start trying to make the gizmo in question.

[mudblood]

You can run it off of hydrogen-peroxide. Not pure hydrogen - that would be dangerous, agreed.

[keithtoo]

Hydrogen! Hydrogen! That’s our fuel!
Implausibility that’s our rule.
Lets all get together in a brainless shout.
Put two units of energy in and get one unit of energy out!

Clean energy is what we’re seeking.
Even though it keeps on leaking.
Hey everybody’s for it.
Don’t bring up that we can’t store it.

Forget what it costs to produce.
Everybody wants that clean juice.
If and when the Fed’s get involved.
That’s when real problems get solved.

The one sure fire way to end pollution.
Is to have the Fed’s solve a billion dollar problem….
With a trillion dollar solution.

[CougarGA7]

What are the by-products left after you scrub the hydrogen out of the gasoline vapor?

[mudblood]

The good thing about this plan is that, if they manage to set it up so that cars can use EITHER gas or hydrogen, then it will "fuel the way" for gas stations to begin offering hydrogen fuel. Kind of like the hybrids: nobody would buy electric cars because there weren't enough 'filling stations' to charge them at (and the charging would probably take too long anyway). I bought a hybrid the day they became available and everyone thought I was crazy - now they are everywhere and I'm just plain-ol-me again.

...I still think we need a moon base...

[RightWhale]

Hybrid motors could be in my near future also. I have to either turn in my Toyota in a few months or buy it. I wonder how hybrids do in 40 below.

[mudblood]

I don't agree with much in this poem, other than the part of the government in it. It has to be solved by market demand - and I think the demand is there. That's why I sorta like this "it can burn gas too" approach (so long as you can switch over when they start putting up filling stations - because of market demand for them). Funny poem, actually.

[mudblood]

40 below: I've heard they do horribly. I think the manual mentioned that you dont' want to run it in really cold weather or high altitudes. Just have to check the owner's manual. I do know that my hybrid uses more gas in the winter than in the summer - but I wonder how much of that has to do with moving a colder air mass in the winter. The engine is incredibly tiny - the real gas savings. The electric motor only kicks in during accelaration. You can actually run the car when the battery is completely dead - just don't expect to accelarate that fast.

[boris]

See this.

--Boris

[Reelect President Dubya]

And what about the danger of scooting around all over the place in a much more dangerous substance than gasoline? What if there was an accident? Could this cause a big problem?

Hydrogen is certainly highly flammabe, but so is gasoline.

Hydrogen got a really bad reputation from the Hindenburg conflagration, but the reason the Hindenburg burned was because the dirigible's outer skin was composed of a highly flammable material that was also highly vulnerable to electrostatic discharge.

Hydrogen cannot burn unless it is mixed with oxygen. Next time you get a chance to see the Hindenburg film clips, notice how the skin all burns at once near the end. Once the skin burned the hydrogen came into contact with oxygen and an ignition source, but if the skin had not burst into flames first none of the rest would have happened.

Bottom line is that hydrogen, while its use as a practical source of energy is debatable, is probably no more dangerous than gasoline.