Hrein Energy Inc announced that it successfully extracted hydrogen from organic hydride by using a vehicle-mounted reactor vessel and mixed it with intake air in a driving test.
Hrein Energy, whose headquarters is in Sapporo, Japan, is a company that develops devices to store and supply hydrogen. The company succeeded in the experiment with the help of Futaba Industrial Co Ltd, Ito Racing Service Co Ltd and Masaru Ichikawa, professor emeritus of Hokkaido University.
For the driving test, a Nissan March whose displacement is 1.2 liter was modified. The car is equipped with an "on-board dehydrogenation reactor," which extracts hydrogen from organic hydride (methylcyclohexane) by utilizing the waste heat from the exhaust system and supplies hydrogen with the engine.
However, in this experiment, most of the drive power was generated from gasoline. Only three to five volume percent of the intake air was hydrogen.
Hydrogen is more combustible than gasoline. Therefore, when it is mixed with air-fuel mixture, it enables a lean-burn combustion at an air-fuel ratio of more than 25. In the driving test at 50 to 60km/h on the test course, the mileage increased by about 30% compared with the normal gasoline mileage of the vehicle.
The organic hydride used in the experiment stores hydrogen by using aromatic compounds. This time, methylcyclohexane (C7H14) was used. The dehydrogenation reactor separates it into toluene (C7H8) and 3H2.
Organic hydride is liquid at normal temperature and pressure, making it easy to carry. Also, the amounts of hydrogen per mass and volume it can store are more than those of high pressure hydrogen or hydrogen storing alloys.
However, there are some disadvantages. For example, a high temperature of more than 300°C is necessary to extract hydrogen from organic hydride, causing a large energy loss. Also, it is difficult to downsize the dehydrogenation reactor designed for organic hydride.
Hrein Energy, which has downsized dehydrogenation reactors for a long time, developed one that is small enough to be mounted on a car. Also, the waste heat from the engine is reclaimed for dehydrogenation reaction so that no extra energy is used.
In August 2008, the company mounted a dehydrogenation reactor on a 50cc cart and had a driving test on a test course. But, this time, it conducted the experiment with a commercial vehicle for the first time.
However, the volume of the dehydrogenation reactor mounted on the Nissan March is about three liters. And the amount of hydrogen it can produce is about 3m3 per hour, too small to supply all the necessary fuel.
The reactor has to be further downsized to be mounted on fuel cell vehicles, which consume 30 to 50m3 of hydrogen per hour. Also, the operating temperature of a fuel-cell vehicle is too low to cause dehydrogenation reaction with waste heat.
Hrein Energy considers that it will take long to put fuel-cell vehicles to practical use and, therefore, plans to use hydrogen extracted from organic hydride to enhance the fuel efficiency of gasoline vehicles for a starter.
The company also plans to develop a test car based on a 1.5-liter commercial vehicle and to have a driving test in Hokkaido, Japan, where the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit will take place in summer 2008. In addition, it plans to store hydrogen produced by wind generators as organic hydride and to use it for the vehicle.
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