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Since they talk about using methane to create hydrogen, why not use methane directly? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas_vehicle https://en.wikipedia.or
by kayodelycaon 5y ago
Since they talk about using methane to create hydrogen, why not use methane directly?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas_vehicle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas_vehicle
- pintxo 5y agoI understood this as hydrogen from methane is todays method of choice to generate hydrogen for industrial use. Not as proposal for the future.
- hannob 5y agoThey don't talk about using methane to create hydrogen, that's the standard how it's done today. But that's terrible, because it creates huge amounts of CO2. There is some debate whether to use methane reforming with CCS, though it's pretty controversial and there are some huge questionmarks whether that can deliver what's promised. But you can't do that in any practical way in a vehicle.
- pdonis 5y agoDoesn't methane reforming also create CO2? It's the same chemical reaction at bottom.
- buescher 5y agoThe thinking has been that the efficiency of steam reforming of methane to hydrogen (up to 75%) times the efficiency of fuel cells (claimed to be up to ~60% today) gives you system efficiency that is substantially better than conventional engines. There's problems with that, but I'm not prepared to write an essay on them.
- MisterTea 5y agoThere are methane fuel cells which operate on methane directly. No need to decompose the gas (edit: no need to decompose externally). The main issues are the current methane fuel cells operate at very high temperatures of around 1000 C (built in steam reforming) requiring exotic materials. There are low temp catalyst materials in labs but they are consumable and have impractical service life.
- ephbit 5y agoMethanol operated fuel cells appear to be more promising for applications like vehicles.