The Need

Hydrogen gas can be produced from many different feedstocks, such as natural gas, biomass, or water, using a number of different techniques, such as steam methane reformation (SMR). Hydrogen production from coal gasification and manufacturing of hydrogen by the reduction of steam using a metal species are currently established technologies. However, despite significant research in this area, an economically viable process for producing large amounts of relatively pure hydrogen gas has not been defined.

The Technology

Researchers at the The Ohio State University, led by Dr. Liang-Shih Fan, created a two-stage process that can utilize a number of solid, liquid, or gaseous carbon-based fuels to produce hydrogen gas. Porous composite particles containing a suitable metal oxide provide both large surface area for the redox reactions to take place and the ability to survive numerous processing cycles.

Commercial Applications

• Coal power plants
• Biomass production industries
• Waste disposal plants
• Automotive fuel cells

Benefits/Advantages

• When used by coal power plants, the process will capture 100% of carbon emissions
• Coal fed into the chemical looping machinery will be processed about twice as efficiently as conventional methods
• The increases in efficiencies will allow industries to comply with EPA regulations more easily
• In the automotive application, it may make hydrogen fuel cell cars more economically feasible