Hydrogen gains commercial momentum, but is notoriously costly to produce and transport. Using a new process of distributed waste to produce hydrogen fuel cells a new system has been developed. Pioneered by UK Company, Powerhouse Energy, and working with the University of Chester, the company has designed and tested a ‘Distributed Modular Gasification’ system, which uses the G3 ultra high temperature gasification unit. In December it reached the Prefeed Completion stage of the system to validate the equipment, its efficiencies and its outputs. According to the company, the units have proved successful at creating a syngas that can be turned into 99.999% hydrogen, suitable for use in fuel cell vehicles.
If Hydrogen gains commercial momentum in electric vehicles, one of the problems for sustainability is that the batteries are heavy, difficult to recycle and relatively slow to charge- problems hydrogen fuel cells do not suffer from.
Currently hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles are a rare sight on the roads. However in August 2015 Toyota began US sales of its Mirai- a hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered sedan hailed by many as the start of the ‘hydrogen’ revolution.
Keith Allaun, CEO of Powerhouse Energy believes that the company is the pioneer of waste to hydrogen technology. “What we discovered is that at the temperatures at which we operate, were able to liberate and decarbonise the hydrogen more efficiently, more cost effectively and more environmentally robustly than any other mechanism that exist today”. “We believe we are the key to unlocking the hydrogen economy”.
Recycal and its sister company CMA Ecocycle encourage research into all aspects of recycling distributed waste to produce hydrogen fuel cells. The problems of commercially working out ways to re-charge electric cars efficiently, effectively and cost efficiently is one of the key challenges of this century. The work done on hydrogen fuel cells has advanced more in the last two years than the ten years previously.
