Microreactors Change Propane into Hydrogen

Roland Piquepaille writes "Microreactors have already been used for on-site reforming of fuels, such as methanol or propane, to produce hydrogen to be used in fuel cells. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have designed very efficient ceramic microreactors to do this task. The scientists say that their microreactors are much better than other fuel reformer systems. They are now trying to reform gasoline and diesel, which are more widely distributed than propane. Does this mean that one day we'll be able to go to a gas station to refill the fuel cells powering our laptops? Probably not before a while, but read more for additional details, references and a picture of a prototype."

vaporware

[macadamia_harold]

Microreactors Change Propane into Hydrogen

Finally, a good example of vaporware. And not in the Duke Nukem Forever sense of the word.

Re:huh?

[CoderDog]

Suckered by a Roland Piquepaille submission, Again. Hate it when that happens.

They mentioned that the reactor operates at high temps (800 C. to 1000 C.) to avoid carbon (as soot) fouling of the reactor. So, they've either got an ash bin somewhere downstream or they sprew CO and/or CO2. The other boast was that they'd reformed ammonia (at 1000 C.) to produce hydrogen. No word on whether the waste was gaseous nitrogen or nitrous oxides. Hope it's not nitrous oxides. Denver's "brown cloud" used to be mainly nitrous oxides from car exhaust.

This looks like a really cool trick, but otherwise nearly worthless at this late date. I really don't want to run down to the gas station every couple of hours for a hydrogen recharge, and really, really dont't want a long warmup 800 C. appliance running in the house -- unless it also cooks 60 second pizzas. Additionally, the world's running out of their feedstock. If they had something that took plastic packaging, waste paper, saw dust, or the neighbors yapping little pets as an input and efficiently produced butane, propane, diesel or gasline, along with nicely segregated saleable piles of sulfur and laser printer toner, that'd be a newsworthy dazzling thing.

If it also made nutritious little green biscuits (maybe call 'em Soylent Green?) that'd be extra special.

Whatevs

[Y-Crate]

This shit is nothing. I'm putting the finishing touches on a process that will turn diamonds into multifunction printer paper.

Re:huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmm. there are huge amounts of hydrogen floating around in space though... What Jupiter made of?

Re:Benefits.

[kfg]

Yet in a large majority of the cases you'd never actually need to fill up at the gas station assuming you recharged your fuel cells overnight.

Fuel cells are "recharged" with. . .hydrogen, not electricity. The electricity is stored in. . .the hydrogen. When the hyrdrogen is gone, so is the electricity. That's the way it works.

If you want to recharge your electric car overnight without going to a filling station you'll need a battery. Perhaps you can use it to make it back to the filling station.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/fuel-cell.htm [howstuffworks.com]

KFG

Re:That's a cool thing, but what about

[kfg]

Turning hydrogen into fossil fuels. Now THAT would be something to see.

They're called "plants" and "fungi." Perhaps you've heard of them? The hydrocarbon compound they produce is often refered to colloquially as "vodka."

KFG

Re:How much better is it?

[sydsavage]

My family sold propane and propane equiment when I was a kid

Bobby Hill, is that you?