Promise for Hydrogen-Fueled Cars

Wednesday, June 16 2010

A new process for storing and generating hydrogen to run fuel cells in cars has been invented by chemical engineers at Purdue University. The process uses a powdered chemical called ammonia borane, which has one of the highest hydrogen contents of all solid materials.

"This is the first process to provide exceptionally high hydrogen yield values at near the fuel-cell operating temperatures without using a catalyst, making it promising for hydrogen-powered vehicles," said Arvind Varma, R. Games Slayter Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and head of the School of Chemical Engineering. "We have a proof of concept."

The research team includes former Purdue doctoral student Moiz Diwan (now a senior research engineer at Abbott Laboratories in Chicago), Purdue postdoctoral researcher Hyun Tae Hwang, doctoral student Ahmad Al-Kukhun, and Varma. Purdue has filed a patent application on the technology.

Given the name hydrothermolysis, the new process combines hydrolysis and thermolysis - two hydrogen-generating processes that are not practical by themselves for vehicle applications. Ammonia borane contains 19.6 percent hydrogen, a high weight percentage that means a relatively small quantity and volume of the material are needed to store large amounts of hydrogen.