Methanol, hydrogen storage

CaNi5, H2, MeOH, H20. The catalyst is a hydrogen storage alloy and is partially consumed by the reaction of Ca with water or methanol. 

The presence of impurities is an important issue in mobile applications where the hydrogen at least initially will be supplied by the decomposition of hydrocarbons or methanol in on-board reformer systems as long as no appropriate hydrogen storage media are available. In such systems CO is an unavoidable by-product, and since CO binds more strongly to Pt than hydrogen, the low operating temperature... 

Ethanol can be derived from biomass by means of acidic/enzymatic hydrolysis or also by thermochemical conversion and subsequent enzymatic ethanol formation. Likewise for methanol, hydrogen can be produced from ethanol with the ease of storage/transportation and an additional advantage of its nontoxicity. Apart from thermodynamic studies on hydrogen from ethanol steam reforming,117-119 catalytic reaction studies were also performed on this reaction using Ni-Cu-Cr catalysts,120 Ni-Cu-K alumina-supported catalysts,121 Cu-Zn alumina-supported catalysts,122,123 Ca-Zn alumina-supported catalysts,122 and Ni-Cu silica-supported catalysts.123... 

If fuel cell cars run on gasoline, there is minimum disruption, but many predict that methanol will serve as a bridge to direct hydrogen. Early fuel cell cars may run on methanol, but rapid advances in direct-hydrogen storage and production could bypass any liquid fuel phase. 

Toyota has been sharing technology with partner GM on electric, hybrid, and fuel cell cars. In 1998, the research division was testing methanol reformers and metal hydride hydrogen storage and had prototypes of each. 

Plans are to offer a commercial vehicle by 2004. A hydrogen-fueled (metal hydride for hydrogen storage), fuel cell attery hybrid passenger car was built by Toyota in 1996, followed in 1997 by a methanol-fueled car built on the same (RAV4) platform (28). 

Fig. 15.18. General process scheme for the production of methanol from renewable resources. (Reprinted from S. Stucki, A. Schuler, and M. Constantinescu, Coupled C02 Recovery from the Atmosphere and Water Electrolysis Feasibility of a New Process for Hydrogen Storage, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, Vol. 20, p. 654, Fig. 1,1995. Reproduced with permission of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy.)...

Table 1. Comparison of Metal Hydrides to Other Hydrogen Storage Methods, Gasoline and Methanol...

Reaction with phenyllithium afforded50 the appropriate tertiary alcohol (77). The branched-chain ethyl uronate 78 was obtained50 by the Reformatsky reaction. After continuous storage of 58b in methanolic hydrogen chloride, and subsequent fractionation on alumina, the dimethyl acetal (79) was isolated.18... 

Alternative materials for hydrogen storage during long-range transport are, as mentioned in section 2.4.5, methanol and higher hydrocarbons. The... 

---