How Biodiesel Fuel-Cells Could Power The Future (And Your Car)
After years of development, the Washington-based company InnovaTek is testing a hand-sized microreactor that can convert virtually any liquid fuel into hydrogen, producing a portable hydrogen stream for use in adjoining fuel-cells.
Since the microreactor units can be linked together, InnovaTek has developed systems capable of producing anywhere from 1 to 160 gallons of hydrogen per minute—enough to supply a hydrogen refueling station or, even more exciting, creating on-board hydrogen for fuel-cell powered vehicles.
That’s InnovaTek’s eventual goal anyway: having their technology built into cars, where energy-dense renewable fuels could be converted into motion, bypassing combustion and the production of exhaust gases entirely, and powering a much more efficient engine. (Imagine for a moment, filling up on biodiesel and driving off to the exhaust-free hum of an electric motor.) InnovaTek plans on commercially licensing the microreactors by 2009.
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Weighing less than one pound, the square piece of shiny steel (pictured above) houses an array of microchannels containing patented catalytic sites. Each microtube helps convert (or reform) a continuous stream of hydrogen from fuels like gasoline, diesel, vegetable oil, biodiesel, propane, natural gas, even the glycerol byproduct from biodiesel manufacturing.
While hydrogen produced by the device has been lauded as the “energy of the future,” it faces major developmental issues. Hydrogen is not a great energy carrier. It has a relatively low energy density, it’s difficult and dangerous to transport, and finding a way to store it on-board in hydrogen-powered vehicles has proven difficult (the first Mercedes F-cell had a range of only 110 miles). The refueling infrastructure is also non-existent.
Even more to the point, we haven’t yet established a renewable source of energy to produce hydrogen.
But that hasn’t stopped us from building hydrogen fuel-cell powered cars. GM, Ford, Honda, Hyundai and Toyota all have prototypes in the works, and Mercedes already released their subcompact F cell in late 2007.
Taking all this into consideration, Innovatek’s reactor could revolutionize the energy and transportation infrastructure of the country.
Innovatek has already signed a $500,000 joint development agreement with Chevron to pursue fuel processing technology for hydrogen refueling stations. (If you think that’s big, in Sept. ‘06 the Navy also awarded Innovatek with a $1.8 million contract to develop portable recharging systems for equipment Marines typically carry by foot.) One of Innovatek’s chief board members commented on their ability to reduce the cost of hydrogen generation: “The smaller system size, reduced catalyst volume, and more efficient process that is realized with InnovaTek’s technology represents another significant step in moving the hydrogen economy from science to commercial reality,” he said.
While InnovTtek’s reactor can run on a variety of non-renewable hydrocarbon sources they, like the potentially revolutionary Coskata Biofuels, are expressly interested in sustainable power, even to the point of preferring biodiesel in their test runs. Innovatek also said that biodiesel just plain works better: it contains fewer impurities and reforms at lower temperatures than petrodiesel.
Now let me beat naysayers to the punch here: no way are we going to power all of America’s cars on biodiesel, even using this kind of technology. I’m also interested in investigating what byproducts the microreactor produces and how they would be collected and used. But without being able to write off algae biodiesel or other majorly productive feedstocks as potential solutions, and based on the inherent coolness of this device, I think we could all be cautiously optimistic.
Related Posts:
NEW: First Algae Biodiesel Plant Goes Online April 1, 2008
GM Announces Biofuel Partnership: Cheap, Green Ethanol?
First Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Goes Online, Makes Fuel From Wood Waste
Switchgrass Could Displace 30% of US Petroleum Usage With 94% GHG Reduction
BREAKING NEWS: First Cars Run on Algae Biodiesel; Breakthrough Production Possible
A Biodiesel Prius? VW To Release 69.9 MPG Diesel Hybrid
The World’s Most Fuel Efficient Car: 285 MPG, Not A Hybrid
Sources:
InnovaTek, Inc. (see “Press Releases”)
Biodiesel Magazine (Mar. 2008): Power Without the Burn
Grainnet (Mar. 17, 08): InnovaTek Introduces New Fuel Cell Processor Technology That Favors Biodiesel
Via: Biodiesel Magazine
Photo Credit: InnovaTek
Clayton:
Great coverage of a fantastic innovation that could very well help to solve a few of the on-going global problems with energy needs and the pollution generated by burning cheap, dirty fuel. I linked to your Gas2.0 piece in my blog for the Innovators-Network, as this type of product is a model worthy of imitation.
Sounds too much like perpetual motion. Anyway on the surface the energy equation just points to new technology, not better technology.
electrolosys of fuel, nothing new
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Biofuels (and carbon capture) are a ‘catastrophe’ for future humankind
The decisions being taken by governments around the world in the quest for sustainability are a catastrophe for humankind in the long-term. Two of these decisions at the forefront of news are biofuels, and carbon capture and storage.
Biofuels — the fuel revolution that will supposedly help us:
(1) Growing crops in the United States for biofuels requires around the same energy input for fertilisers and processing the crops as that saved by replacing petrol on the forecourt (Biofuels - A solution worse than the problem, Daily Telegraph).
(2) By harvesting the peat bogs for biofuels, we release 30 times more carbon dioxide than will be recouped by burning the biofuel produced (Prof. Jack Riley, University of Nottingham).
(3) Growing biofuels takes a lot of land and huge amounts of water — neither of which the world has to spare.
(4) China and India risk famine if they proceed with their biofuels plans, because they don’t have enough water to grow both fuel and food (International Water Management Institute).
(5) Biofuels are killing forests and leading to more global warming, besides taking land away from food crops (Global Forest Coalition).
(6) The diversion of land meant for food crops to agrofuel production is a “crime against humanity” (Jean Ziegler, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food).
Carbon Capture — putting off today what others will have to solve tomorrow:
(1) Carbon sequestration and storage (under our oceans and land) is an untried method of locking up carbon dioxide forever, but there is not a 100 per cent assurance that it will not escape. Possible escape routes include earthquakes, land shifts, terrorism (holding the world to ransom) or human disasters/accidents.
(2) Sequestration and storage of carbon dioxide is not a solution, but a problem that humankind will have to face in the future — one that might eventually threaten the existence of human life itself on Earth, for nothing ever designed has lasted forever.
(3) Governments, as usual, are only looking at solving problems today without any understanding of what this will bring in the future. They are attempting to lock up gases that are toxic to humans — leaving any problems for future generations to solve.
(4) If there was a rupture in the storage vessel, the ramifications for the world would be immense, to say the very least. Therefore, carbon capture is a method of putting off today what others will have to fix tomorrow (if they can).
Dr David Hill
World Innovation Foundation Charity
Bern, Switzerland
Everyone please take a look at the latest algae biodiesel announcement. PetroSun says they’ll be producing 4.4 million gallons of algal oil per year starting April 1, 2008: http://gas2.org/2008/03/29/first-algae-biodiesel-plant-goes-online-april-1-2008/
That’s a totally non-food based source of fuel.
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hey space,
some how the entire logic of hydrogen powered vehicles seems quaint to me. It may be OK in city centers and other densely populated areas.. else.. the whole thing sounds bad in energy equation
Even algal hydrogen for that matter. You would end up using only a very small portion of the bio mass as hydrogen.. and, at the same time.. spend energy(money) doing so. the carbonaceous matter being wasted.. and polluting.
Better solutions can be worked out.
shall love to be part of such endeavours… do getin touch.. kumarfurnace@hotmail.com