Disadvantages of reforming for supplying fuel cells The reformer–fuel-cell system is still being researched but in the near term, systems would continue to run on existing fuels, such as natural gas or gasoline or diesel. However, there is an active debate about whether using these fuels to make hydrogen is beneficial while global warming is an issue. Fossil fuel reforming does not eliminate carbon dioxide release into the atmosphere but reduces the carbon dioxide emissions as compared to the burning of conventional fuels due to increased efficiency.[8] However, by turning the release of carbon dioxide into a point source rather than distributed release, carbon capture and storage becomes a possibility, which would prevent the carbon dioxides release to the atmosphere, while adding to the cost of the process. The cost of hydrogen production by reforming fossil fuels depends on the scale at which it is done, the capital cost of the reformer and the efficiency of the unit, so that whilst it may cost only a few dollars per kilogram of hydrogen at industrial scale, it could be more expensive at the smaller scale needed for fuel cells.[9] Recently, a Polish company Bioleux Polska has been advertising renewable hydrogen (RH2) plasma reformers, producing RH2 at under $2 per kilogram[citation needed], and available for lightweight mobile applications using vegetable oil or glycerol as feedstock.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Oct 2013 23:34:13 +0000
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