Pure hydrogen p.e.m. fuel cells help sign death warrants for L.A. citizens, not the oil companies. On January 25 certain automakers could hoodwink the California Air Resource Board into believing they have an answer to 'clean air' in another 10 to 20 years, in reality they already have the answer; planar solid oxide fuel cells. Here's some information about who's ready or not, and what causes 'dirty air'.
This first excerpt is from March of last year the same time all the hype about p.e.m.'s was flourishing, and retail investors were baited ...
Lobbyist Pushes Gasoline Over Methanol
Gasoline should be the future fuel of choice for fuel cells, according to Exxon Corp. division manager John W. Holmes, in testimony on behalf of The American Petroleum Institute (1220 L St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20005-4070; Tel: 202/682-8000) before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy and Environment of the Committee on Science.
A major advantage for a gasoline-based fuel is that it can use the current established production and distribution
infrastructure, which provides significant benefits in fuel availability, investment costs, and the potential penetration rate of fuel cell vehicles. Worldwide, more than 500 refineries produce about 1.3 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel each day. The U.S. alone has more than 80,000 miles of product pipelines and about 190,000 service stations supplying gasoline to consumers.
A gasoline based fuel for fuel cell vehicles would likely be produced from a blend of streams readily available.
Researchers have demonstrated a reformer that can run on conventional gasoline. In addition, a gasoline for fuel
cells could offer better performance and be produced at lower cost because many of conventional gasoline's more
expensive ingredients would not be required.
Octane, for example, is important in internal combustion engines, but is not needed for fuel cell vehicles. Likewise, expensive oxygenates now blended in reformulated gasoline would not be needed in a fuel cell fuel. Sulfur is likely the most important fuel quality issue, since sulfur can inhibit the performance of the system. Low sulfur blend components are available in small quantities.
Naphtha is a common refinery stream, an inexpensive alternative to conventional gasoline. Although its octane is
too low for internal combustion engines, naphtha is ideal for fuel cells and could be supplied to retail stations with
the existing gasoline infrastructure. In addition, liquid hydrocarbons derived from natural gas production also make
excellent fuels and provide fuel flexibility from an additional resource base.
The gasoline fuel processor is slightly more complex than the methanol processor. It operates at a higher
temperature, although still significantly lower than engines, so heat integration is important to achieve the desired
vehicle efficiencies. The gasoline system does have a number of advantages, however. It is inherently more flexible
than the low temperature methanol reformer, allowing the processing of multiple fuels using the same system.
Gasoline, jet fuel, LPG, natural gas, and ethanol have all been successfully demonstrated in the system. The
gasoline processor is also more tolerant of contaminants or additives contained in the fuel. Lastly, because of the
higher energy density of gasoline, the gasoline system offers the potential for up to twice the vehicle range of the
methanol system.
buscom.com ... original link
This next excerpt from the Georgetown University Fuel Cell Bus website explains what pollutants are made when a pure hydrogen p.e.m. fuel cell uses a hydrocarbon reformer ...
Because they rely on chemical processes rather than combustion, fuel cells have much lower emissions than internal combustion engines (ICEs). In fact, a fuel cell that is fed pure hydrogen will only have water vapor as an emission. In Georgetown's methanol-fueled fuel cell buses, the emissions are primarily by-products of the fuel reforming process.
This graph (refer to link) depicts representative emissions of internal combustion vehicles using various fuels as
compared to the established 1998 EPA Standards for transit buses. Fuel cell data is based upon vendor projections derived from stationary fuel cell power plant experience.
Note that the fuel cell emits no particulate matter, trace amounts of hydrocarbons and NOx and very little carbon monoxide. Because fuel cell emissions are so low, there has been a rapid worldwide escalation of activity in the development of transportation fuel cells in the past several years.
georgetown.edu .. Georgetown University. complete report
By comparison Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Target Pollutant NOx, CO2, CO, HCs, VOCs ... excerpted from ...
nutech.org
In this recent interview Jim Perry president and ceo of GLE has some interesting things to say about fuel cells.
ceocast.com ... you have to sign in, it's free
i.m.h.o.
Now thanks in part to the hype that's attributed to bldp the automakers can trade off the amount of pollutants made by a gasoline/electric hybrid with an imaginary hydrocarbon p.e.m. system. An indication of bldp fortunes after the 'dirty deed' is done lies in the previous post from Visteon. Another 'fact' to consider is any reduction in emissions by the automakers 'plan' is nullified as the number of vehicles on the road increases daily.
However there's still some hope that Californian's may breathe 'clean air' sometime this Century. GLE's solid oxide fuel cell specifically targets the pollutants, without additional 'scrubbing systems' on board, lowering the cost of fuel cell systems, and eliminating the complexity of a system. The SOFC can interface with an internal combustion engine, coupled with an electrically heated catalytic converter, and the existing hydrocarbon fuels infrastructure changover to 'clean' organic fuels, we'll have it made in the shade. The SOFC can use pure hydrogen with double the efficiency of a p.e.m. if need be, also a SOFC can use hydrocarbon fuels without forming pollutants emitting only water vapour with dramatic reduction of carbon dioxide, a p.e.m. cannot do so. |
