WSU postdoctoral researcher Jamie Kee and Professor Su Ha and the novel reactor they developed to produce pure compressed hydrogen (photo courtesy of Washington State University)
Hydrogen fuel for cars would be readily-available at your corner gas station if a method from a Washington State University team is put to work.
The WSU researchers say they’ve taken an ethanol-water mix, which they electrify to break it down. They say it uses much less electricity to split off the hydrogen atoms than other methods, and since it would use renewable electricity, it’s a win-win for the environment…but the wins seem to keep coming. Chemical engineering professor, Doctor Su Ha, says they can use existing ethanol transportation infrastructure to transport the mixture to fueling stations in your neighborhood. Then, he says, the conversion reactor is small enough to be set up at a fueling station for hydrogen fuel on demand. “Some magic happens inside the reactor,” Doctor Ha says, “this mixture turns into 100% pure hydrogen gas at very high pressure. This hydrogen is pure, so it’s ready to be charged into our fuel cell car.”
Ha says the hydrogen isn’t stored nor transported in tanks under high pressure like it would have to be if it were created at a chemical plant. It comes out of the reactor in the form it’s needed without the need to store it. So that eliminates the danger of hydrogen fuel tanks exploding in your neighborhood or next to you on the freeway. He also points out that since the alternative is that plant the size of the Seahawks indoor training field at the VMAC, smaller neighborhood reactors would also reduce the need for the big hydrogen plant.
The only emission from hydrogen fuel-cell engines is water vapor, but Doctor Ha says their process does have a carbon dioxide by-product. He says that CO 2 isn’t like the stuff that comes out of your gas car and pollutes the air. The reaction process leaves a liquid CO 2 that could be stored in tanks at the fueling station until it’s retrieved. Then it could be sold for a wide range of uses, like the carbonation in your favorite beer or soda pop.
You can read even more about the WSU hydrogen fuel research here.
