Vanagon fuel pump

Argonne researchers have developed a new device that could bring electric cars closer to practical use for daily driving.

The device, called an "on-board methanol reformer," releases the hydrogen bound up in methanol (methyl alcohol). Because it is more compact than other reformers, it could enable fuel cells to power electric cars.

Fuel cells are like a batteries with fuel tanks. Unlike batteries, they produce electricity as long as they have fuel, and they never need recharging. The Department of Energy is currently investigating them as possible electric-vehicle power sources.

"Fuel cells are much more efficient and much less polluting than internal combustion engines," said Romesh Kumar (CMT). The device was developed by Kumar, Shabbir Ahmed and Michael Krumpelt (all CMT).
A major problem in using fuel cells to power electric cars, Kumar said, is that they are fueled by hydrogen, a very light gas that is difficult to store. Currently available hydrogen-storage technologies are so heavy and bulky that they would limit the driving range of any car that used them.

"But an on-board reformer like ours," he said, "could solve this problem by reforming methanol from the gas tank and feeding the hydrogen into a fuel cell."

The Argonne device takes up less volume than a seven-gallon container, Kumar said. This makes it the first fuel reformer small enough to fit under the hood of a compact car beside a 50-kilowatt polymer-electrolyte-membrane (PEM) fuel cell, DOE's top candidate for an electric-vehicle fuel cell.

Argonne's reformer would combine methanol with oxygen from the air to produce a hydrogen-rich mixture of gases that would be injected into the fuel cell.

Compared to other reformers, Argonne's is light-weight, compact and energy-efficient. In addition, Kumar said, it is flexible enough to respond well to frequent startups and shutdowns and to the rapidly changing engine demands of daily stop-and-go driving.

The design is simple and inexpensive to manufacture, Kumar said. It consists of a cylinder packed with a common and inexpensive catalyst. A nozzle sprays liquid methanol into the cylinder, and an ignition source starts it.

In addition to hydrogen, the reformer produces carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. A small on-board chemical reactor would convert the carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide.