Ethanol to Hydrogen

[tulook]

Ethanol
by TreeHugger on 05.16.05
Science & Technology (alternative energy)

Recently hydrogen as source of energy was deeply discussed in the very commented The Hydrogen Economy isn't Coming Soon. Well, from Argentina a new element arrives to the discussion, as members of the Catalytic Processes Laboratory (LPC) of University of Buenos Aires (UBA) has found a new way to get highly pure hydrogen from ethanol.

After the study of three chemical reactions in different reactors, they arrived to a three phase portable chemical unit, system which was licensed to the Spanish Abener-Abengoa company to be utilized in transportation.

Although there already are ways to convert ethanol in hydrogen, Buenos Aires scientists have perfected the process, obtaining a substance of high purity. The reason this process would be friendly with fuel call batteries is that it yields hydrogen with between 20 and 30 parts per million of carbon dioxide, sufficient to not corrode them. Alkaline and one other type of fuel cell stack (not the commonly described proton membrane variety fed pure H2) accomplish their reformation of alcohol to H2 directly, without separate processing unit, so that it would be possible to charge the fuel tank with methanol alcohol, avoiding the need for expensive and complex hydrogen stations. Because emissions of C0, NOX, and SOX are very low, almost no air quality compromise results. The drawback is that direct reformation stacks tend to operate a higher temperatures by far than PEM stacks, and need a longer warmup period prior to driving. Thus they would likely be more suitable for public transit.

For those not so close to the subject, the importance of the hydrogen resides in that it is an alternative energy source to the fossil fuels like the coal, natural gas or the petroleum (contaminating not renewable resources). Hydrogen functions through a fuel battery similar to a car battery, which is fed with hydrogen on one side and with oxygen in the other, producing electric power through a chemical reaction, without combustion.

At present the hydrogen is obtained mainly from the electrolysis of the water (a very expensive procedure), petroleum or natural gas. The positive thing about ethanol is that it's highly renewable, since alcohol can be obtained of sugar cane, corn, beet, barley and other cultivations.

For more details on this development contact Miguel Laborde, director of the Catalytic Processes Laboratory. [by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires]

[retroworm]

The positive thing about ethanol is that it's highly renewable, since alcohol can be obtained of sugar cane, corn, beet, barley and other cultivations.

I've been strong advocate for methanol/ethanol economy for a long time, but ever since I heard that for the first time, I've been saying that it s a completely counterintuitive way to produce fuel. In fact I was fairly happy to hear that EU is re-evaluating its approach on biofuel production. It's expesive, innefficient and takes up space and resources from food production. Offgrid solar/wind/nuclear powerplants would be far more sustainable in the long run to produce methanol in large quantities. There is also research going on to produce readily usable carbon monoxide with solar cells, directly from co2 in air.

[tulook]

While I have never been a proponent of ethanol (especially corn) I was happy to learn of a real and efficient use for it. Mix with water 50-50% put into a fuel cell and you get more hydrogen out than with water alone. More gold from crap, I am humbled.

[AbbaRue]

There is a substance at the bottom of the oceans which is called fire ice.
It is almost pure methanol, and is very abundant.
They estimate there is 6 times as much methanol stored at the ocean floor as all the oil reserved put together.
A few Universities from the USA have been doing research on this product.
There main concern is the impact mining this product from the ocean floor will have on the ecosystem of the oceans. 
Other then that there are no other real concerns with it's use.

[retroworm]

Couldn't find anything on fire ice, but wikipedia had reference to "burning ice". Is this the same stuff?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane_clathrate
It doesn't say it's very abundant, as in commercially viable in many cases, but it's definitely a source for hydrocarbons.