BETTERGY CORP. — Department of Energy SBIR Phase II: DE-FOA-0001563

Description

There is growing interest in the use of ammonia as a clean alternative to fossil fuels. Ammonia belongs to a group of energy-dense liquid fuels that are much easier to store and transport than hydrogen. As ammonia decomposes to hydrogen through in a single reaction step and neither carbon oxide nor sulfur is involved in the product stream, ammonia is one of the most promising carbon neutral liquid fuels (CNLFs). The continuous cracking of ammonia to supply smaller size compressors for smaller high pressure tanks will allow modular capability and increase the reliability of hydrogen refueling stations. Low cost and reliable on-demand hydrogen generation technology will also find wide application in many other industrial areas. However, the state-of-the-art ammonia cracking technologies are not cost-effective and issues caused by high cracking temperature and the use of expensive catalysts still need to be addressed in order for ammonia cracking to be a viable option for on-site hydrogen generation applications. As a result, the ability to produce hydrogen through ammonia cracking at low temperature and high pressure and without the use of expensive catalysts is highly sought after for purposes of both energy and production efficiency as well as cost. Bettergy Corp will develop a novel catalytic membrane reactor to allow low temperature on-site hydrogen generation from ammonia. The proposed low temperature ammonia cracking membrane reactor system is comprised of non-precious metal ammonia cracking catalyst and a robust composite membrane. The objective of this project is to achieve a hydrogen delivery cost at target pressure (20bar) < $4.5/kg, at a scale as small as 10 L H2/min. Once the low temperature ammonia cracking membrane reactor system with the above characteristics is developed, it will have a significant impact on the development of the fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) market, as it will help provide reliable, low-cost, zero-emission on-demand hydrogen refueling stations for FCEVs, as well as on portable and stationary power generation systems, and other industrial uses.