April 16th 2002
Hydrogen Technologies Taking Off
Source:New Technology Week
Two development-stage companies have announced successful tests of technologies that
extract hydrogen from various fuel sources- a key to the promised fuel cell revolution.
Ztek Corp., based in Woburn, Mass., recently announced it has successfully
extracted
hydrogen from regular unleaded gasoline using so-called reformer technology.
Meanwhile, Millenium Cell Inc., based in Eatontown, N.J., said testing
at the Energy
Department's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee had confirmed
the potential of its
technology to generate hydrogen for portable power applications.
Ztek officials said in-house testing showed their technology worked,
opening the door for
commercial development.
"This breakthrough could revolutionize the fuel cell industry by freeing
vehicles from the need
for an expensive and heavy on-board reformer," the company said. "By
locating reformers at
existing service stations, fuel cell vehicles would be refueled similar
to current
gasoline-powered cars, requiring little change in consumers' fueling
or driving habits."
Ztek said its reformer extracts hydrogen from gasoline or natural gas
and that its process
can extract 85 percent of potential energy from the fuel- many times
that of the well-known
electrolysis process. That means less fuel is needed to produce an
equivalent amount of
hydrogen. Ztek also said electrolysis uses electricity to produce hydrogen,
largely reducing
environmental benefits.
And the company also said while other reformer technologies emit greenhouse
gases such
as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, Ztek's reformer allows for sequestration
of the CO2
byproduct.
Ztek officials said no cost data was available on the performance of
its reformer, which they
expect to be commercially available later this year. The privately
owned company said it was
exploring deployment in California for bus refueling and other applications.
Meanwhile, Millennium Cell said the testing of its technology at Oak
Ridge was so successful
it was talking to the lab about a co-development agreement.
Millenium's technology is based on releasing hydrogen carried in the
chemical bonds of
sodium borohydride, a derivative of borax, a naturally occurring mineral.
The borax
compound releases hydrogen or produces electricity in the presence
of certain catalysts and
water.
Oak Ridge officials said their test program showed the company's fuel
system had high
energy density, excellent safety characteristics, non-flammability
and favorable
environmental characteristics.
Millenium officials said they have begun discussions with Oak Ridge
to become a private
sector partner in a DOE initiative to develop a new, low-cost process
to manufacture and
re-generate sodium borohydride. They said a co-development agreement
would confer
certain rights to Millennium Cell to license any jointly developed
technology to
non-governmental markets.
