Japanese Hydrogenated Fuel Test Cuts CO2 by 30%

Japanese Hydrogenated Fuel Test Cuts CO2 by 30%

By John O'Dell February 29, 2008 Adding hydrogen to a hydrocarbon fuel such as gasoline or diesel can dramatically reduce emissions and boost fuel economy – the problem is how to produce, store and use the hydrogen.

A Japanese company, Hrein Energy, has been working on a solution and this week announced it has tested "the world's first organic hydride hydrogen vehicle."

The chemistry in the translated-from-Japanese release is hard to wade through, but essentially, Hrein is developing a system that uses a catalyst and heat from the vehicle's exhaust to separate hydrogen from an organic liquid and then feed it into the vehicle's fuel stream.

Hrein, based in Sapporo, used a Nissan March subcompact with a 1.2-liter gas engine outfitted with the company’s on-board system (Hrein calls it a dehydrogenation reactor).

The company claims it achieved a 30 percent increase in fuel economy, thus reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent. It also reported that carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides, or NOx, emissions were "considerably reduced."

Next step is to scale up the system for tests with a larger vehicle using a 1.5-liter engine, the company said.

Hrein, which says its name is from an Icelandic word meaning "clean," also is working on a system for using wind power to produce the electricity needed to pull hydrogen from water in the process known as electrolysis.

The company says that liquid organic hydrides are more hydrogen-dense than other storage media, increasing the amount of hydrogen that can be carried on board a vehicle.

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.