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MAY 6, 2004
Can Gasoline Jump-Start Hydrogen? Researchers say a gizmo called a reformer can extract the clean fuel from good old unleaded -- and give fuel-cell cars double the mileage Environmentalists dream of energy-efficient cars that run on hydrogen, with tailpipes spewing out nothing more noxious than water vapor. Judging from the popularity of Toyota's (TM ) Prius hybrid -- a kind of car with both an electric motor and a gasoline engine -- a fuel-cell-powered all-electric car that gets equal or better mileage from hydrogen would seem a surefire hit. The big drawback: Where do you go to fill 'er up with hydrogen? How about any existing gas station. Gasoline has plenty of hydrogen locked up inside it, and researchers have developed so-called reformers that can extract it. There's a hitch, however: Reformers take 15 minutes to produce enough hydrogen to back the car out of the garage. Nobody wants a car that takes that long to start. What's needed is a hydrogen-age version of the automatic starter invented by Charles Kettering. It quickly replaced those antique hand-crank starters, starting with a Cadillac in 1911. MOLECULE CRACKING. Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory think they have it. They're developing an under-the-hood steam reformer on steroids. "It can produce large amounts of hydrogen from gasoline vapors in only 12 seconds," says chief engineer Greg Whyatt. The key: pumping a vapor-and-steam mixture through myriad microchannels. In those tiny, confined spaces, catalysts work their magic extremely rapidly, cracking the molecules of gasoline and water to release hydrogen. Even more magical: The extracted hydrogren actually has a higher energy value than gasoline, thanks in part to the extra hydrogen atoms liberated from the steam. That means a big bump in mileage. In fact, says Whyatt, "compared to an internal-combustion engine, we're projecting that a fuel-cell-powered car with our steam reformer would get at least twice the mileage" from the same amount of gasoline. Since fuel cells generate clean electricity through a chemical reaction with no combustion involved, fuel-cell cars could substantially reduce global oil consumption while drastically curbing pollution. Steam reformers, however, do use auxiliary combustion: Carbon extracted from the gasoline is burned to heat water and generate the steam. This produces carbon dioxide, which goes out the tailpipe -- but only half as much per mile driven as a conventional car. So reformers won't satisfy all the environmentalists' dreams. Still, says Whyatt, "reducing CO2 by half would have huge impact if widely implemented." SHRINKING ACT. The first microchannel reformer won't show up in a car, though. Detroit doesn't make such fundamental changes quickly -- and startup Velocys Inc. is about a year away from unveiling a giant steam reformer. Velocys was spun off by Pacific Northwest Lab in 2001 to commercialize big reformers for industrial-scale fuel-cell generators that squeeze enough juice from hydrogen to light a factory or small town. Shrinking a microchannel steam reformer into a bread-box-size system for cars has been a lot tougher, says Whyatt. Ultimately, he adds, a reformer that can supply hydrogen to a 50-kilowatt fuel cell should take up less than one cubic foot. It may take a couple years to perfect. But by yearend, Whyatt expects to have a small prototype -- sufficient for a 2-kw fuel cell -- ready for Detroit to check out.  By Otis Port in New York
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