A Different Approach | Green Energy News

March 24, 2002 – Vol.6 No.52

A DIFFERENT APPROACH.

If hydrogen is to become the fuel of the future for vehicles, what methods will be used to generate and deliver the fuel? Unless an extensive and expensive pipeline system is built to deliver hydrogen from large processing facilities to vehicle fueling stations, hydrogen would have to be extracted from hydrocarbon fuels on board a vehicle via reformer, or it would be generated on the spot at each filling station.

Reformers add complexity, cost and weight to a fuel cell vehicle. On-the-spot hydrogen extracted from water through electrolysis requires a source of electricity - the grid or distributed power. Since electricity from the grid can come from clean and renewable sources, or coal, oil or natural gas, the hydrogen generated for use in the vehicle is only as clean or renewable as that used to generate electricity needed to power the electrolyzer.

Now, there’s yet another approach. Extract hydrogen on the spot from hydrocarbons with a reformer and, as part of the process, separate and sequester carbon dioxide emissions. That is what Ztek Corporation is doing with its new hydrogen reformer. The company also claims its reforming process, which can used with gasoline or natural gas, is more efficient than other extraction processes, such as electrolysis, and is 85 percent efficient in energy extraction.

Though not mentioned by the company, if gasoline were used as a feedstock for hydrogen, new blends of gasoline could be developed that could be used strictly as a fuel meant to be reformed for hydrogen. Gasoline has chemical compounds in it designed to enhance its performance as a fuel for internal combustion engines. Those compounds would be unnecessary when the hydrocarbon would be used only for hydrogen extraction.

Ztek claims it should have its reforming technology available this year. Visit ZTEK at http://www.zetekcorp.com/ .