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British scientists have proposed a way of making it easier and cheaper to run hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles by filling them with ammonia.
The researchers have developed a way to cut the costs of making hydrogen from ammonia, which can be transported and stored much more easily than hydrogen in tanks similar to those already used by filling stations for liquid petroleum gas (LPG).
This method of ***cking ammonia using relatively cheap sodium rather than an expensive catalyst could pave the way for fuel-cell vehicles to make their own hydrogen from a widely available chemical, rather than carrying a tank of very high-pressure hydrogen and requiring expensive new infrastructure.
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Alternatively, combining a small amount of hydrogen with the rest of the ammonia would enable it to be burned in an optimised but conventional internal combustion engine (ICE), the researchers from the ISIS Neutron Source facility in Oxfordshire claim.
Several major car manufacturers are planning to launch commercial hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles in the next few years, including Toyota, Honda and General Motors. But there are major fears about the difficulty of creating a hydrogen fuel infrastructure – as well as the perceived dangers of the potentially explosive gas.
/r/k/e/14EC2754_Ammonia_storage_research.jpg
Source: STFC
Principle investigators Dr Martin Owen Jones (left) and Prof Bill David with their ammonia decomposition reactor.
Prof Bill David, whose research team at ISIS has built a 20cm3 proof-of-concept reactor, said ammonia could be stored at much lower pressures than the 700 atmospheres typically used to store hydrogen for use in vehicles.
‘We would store the ammonia at 20 atmospheres so it would be straightforward to store it on forecourts,’ he told The Engineer. ‘If you’ve got the equivalent of LPG tanks on your forecourts you don’t need to worry about expensive hydrogen infrastructure.’
He added that an ammonia-fuelled ICE could be almost as efficient as some current engine designs. ‘The ammonia’s performance is not as good as petrol or diesel but it’s in the same ballpark. I reckon we can easily get 40 miles to the gallon with a tank of ammonia, so it has a range way beyond what you’re going to get with an electric car.’
Old idea, new solution
Current methods of producing hydrogen from ammonia rely on precious metal catalysts such as ruthenium at very high temperatures. The ISIS solution – which was actually first recorded by British chemist Arthur Titherley in 1894 – is to react the ammonia with sodium to produce sodium amide, which then breaks down into nitrogen, hydrogen and the original sodium.
Although the reaction still requires temperatures of 400
The researchers have developed a way to cut the costs of making hydrogen from ammonia, which can be transported and stored much more easily than hydrogen in tanks similar to those already used by filling stations for liquid petroleum gas (LPG).
This method of ***cking ammonia using relatively cheap sodium rather than an expensive catalyst could pave the way for fuel-cell vehicles to make their own hydrogen from a widely available chemical, rather than carrying a tank of very high-pressure hydrogen and requiring expensive new infrastructure.
click here
Alternatively, combining a small amount of hydrogen with the rest of the ammonia would enable it to be burned in an optimised but conventional internal combustion engine (ICE), the researchers from the ISIS Neutron Source facility in Oxfordshire claim.
Several major car manufacturers are planning to launch commercial hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles in the next few years, including Toyota, Honda and General Motors. But there are major fears about the difficulty of creating a hydrogen fuel infrastructure – as well as the perceived dangers of the potentially explosive gas.
/r/k/e/14EC2754_Ammonia_storage_research.jpg
Source: STFC
Principle investigators Dr Martin Owen Jones (left) and Prof Bill David with their ammonia decomposition reactor.
Prof Bill David, whose research team at ISIS has built a 20cm3 proof-of-concept reactor, said ammonia could be stored at much lower pressures than the 700 atmospheres typically used to store hydrogen for use in vehicles.
‘We would store the ammonia at 20 atmospheres so it would be straightforward to store it on forecourts,’ he told The Engineer. ‘If you’ve got the equivalent of LPG tanks on your forecourts you don’t need to worry about expensive hydrogen infrastructure.’
He added that an ammonia-fuelled ICE could be almost as efficient as some current engine designs. ‘The ammonia’s performance is not as good as petrol or diesel but it’s in the same ballpark. I reckon we can easily get 40 miles to the gallon with a tank of ammonia, so it has a range way beyond what you’re going to get with an electric car.’
Old idea, new solution
Current methods of producing hydrogen from ammonia rely on precious metal catalysts such as ruthenium at very high temperatures. The ISIS solution – which was actually first recorded by British chemist Arthur Titherley in 1894 – is to react the ammonia with sodium to produce sodium amide, which then breaks down into nitrogen, hydrogen and the original sodium.
Although the reaction still requires temperatures of 400
