Chemical engineers are helping make fuel cells for commercial use in vehicles, such as this hybrid-powered (battery and fuel cell) forklift, that contains its own hydrogen generation system. Courtesy Nuvera Fuel Cells.
Although hydrogen is a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels, its use as a fuel presents several obstacles that must be overcome. It is difficult to store and distribute. No method currently exists for delivering hydrogen to households, and no infrastructure is in place to allow fuel cell-powered cars to refuel at local gas stations. Chemical engineers are heavily involved in the development of a variety of safe and technically feasible systems to produce hydrogen cost efficiently on a small scale.
These include
- Low-pressure and low-temperature fuel processors able to produce hydrogen from hydrocarbon fuels;
- Use of coal-derived synthetic gas as a source of hydrogen;
- Extraction of hydrogen from fossil fuels; and
- An imaginative array of new processes based on
- Water splitting,
- Biomass and wastewater reforming, and
- Renewable electrolysis.
Hydrogen fuel cells
Efforts are under way to develop fuel-cell batteries that would use hydrogen or other fuels that can be converted to hydrogen. These mini power plants would produce electricity directly from hydrogen and oxygen, with the only discharge being water vapor. Because fuel cells rely on electrochemistry rather than combustion, they virtually eliminate the emission of pollutants associated with today's cars, trucks, buses, and power plants.
Copyright © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers and Chemical Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved.