Aqueous Phase Base-Facilitated-Reforming (BFR) of Renewable Fuels

The primary industrial hydrogen production method today is Steam Methane Reforming (SMR) of natural gas (NG) at medium centralized facilities. This method has several shortcomings: (1) the natural gas feedstock is not renewable, (2) carbon emissions require costly mitigation systems to be compliant with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations, (3) reformation results in a dilute hydrogen gas stream that require extensive purification to obtain pure hydrogen, and (4) elevated processing temperatures, input energy requirements, and process inefficiencies induce high capital and operating costs. This project will investigate a Base-Facilitated-Reforming (BFR) process for the economical production of hydrogen. BFR addresses the four drawbacks of the NG SMR process and offers the following key advantages: conversion of renewable fuels, liquid phase reformation, low-temperature operation, elimination of water gas shift, pure hydrogen gas creation and carbon dioxide at any scale. Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee: The hydrogen produced by this innovative technology should find immediate use in existing industrial processes that require hydrogen and has the potential to accelerate the advent of a wide-spread hydrogen infrastructure by providing a clean and inexpensive source of hydrogen. In the longer term, the hydrogen produced by this technology could become a significant fuel source for transportation and the generation of electricity.