VANCOUVER, British Columbia and IRVINE, Calif. — PowerTap Hydrogen Capital Corp. is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary, PowerTap Hydrogen Fueling Corp. (“PowerTap Fueling”) has completed the engineering design of the PowerTap Gen3 making significant improvements in its steam methane reformer (SMR) that increases the production of hydrogen, reduces feedstock requirements, and extends the life of the SMR.
The design of the SMR remains subject to revisions, pending the successful manufacturing of a prototype that achieves all of the functionalities as intended.
Specific innovations include:
- The improvement of heat transfer within the water gas shift reactor vessel identified in the below diagram via reactor tube design and use of a unique heat reflective coating inside the vessel. The improvement of heat transfer within the reactor vessel reduces the amount of feedstock gas needed to produce hydrogen and considerably enhances the separation of hydrogen from the feedstock in the process.
- The reduction of the reactor temperature and pressure which reduces the overall stress on the vessel and tube system and extends the life of the system from ten years to over 15 years.
- The burning of the syn gas from the shift reactor which reduces the volume of renewable natural gas feedstock required and reduces greenhouse gas emitted into the atmosphere.
- The increase of the overall life span of the SMR from 10 years to 15 years through advancement and improvement in the catalyst and, reduction of the water gas shift reactor vessel temperature and pressure.
The effectiveness of the improvements to the SMR design as mentioned above, remain subject to testing during the manufacturing process, and may be amended as required.
With the completion of engineering design, the Company is in the process of finalizing arrangements for the manufacturing of the prototypes of the PowerTap Gen3 unit. The Company will provide updates on this phase when material developments occur. The Company is also finalizing its pre-application packages for the first three sites in the California counties of Monterey and Humboldt to submit in Summer 2021. The company’s efforts over the next few months will be focused on working closely with the California Hydrogen Business Council (CHBC) and the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), to process the application and, separately, obtaining authorization for its Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) Hydrogen Refueling Infrastructure (HRI) credits from the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
Kelley Owen, Chief Operating Officer of PowerTap Fueling, stated, “The incorporation of these major design changes to the current applications represent significant improvement in the production of hydrogen today.”
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