Decomposing methanol as a consumable hydride for automobiles and gas turbines

Conference · Mon Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1982

OSTI ID:5323880

Finegold, J G; McKinnon, J T; Karpuk, M E

The design and testing of an automotive fuel system that provides hydrogen-rich gases to an internal combustion engine by catalytically cracking, or dissociating, methanol on board the vehicle are described. The vaporization and dissociation of methanol absorb heat from the engine exhaust and increase the lower heating value of the fuel by approximately 22%. In addition, raising the compression ratio and burning with excess air increases the engine thermal efficiency. Engine dynamometer test results with dissociated methanol demonstrated improvements in brake thermal efficiency compared to gasoline from 30% to 100% depending on engine speed and torque. Lower speeds and torques produce the largest improvements. Maps of exhaust temperature and exhaust heat content are presented. The exhaust temperature is almost always high enough for dissociation to occur, but at lower power outputs, there is only enough exhaust energy for partial dissociation of the methanol. This concept also applied to combustion turbines. Steam reformed methanol allows higher efficiency and more power compared to liquid methanol, dissociated methanol, or petroleum fuels. The hydrogen-rich gases do not require cooling before entering the turbine. An analysis is presented of the potential technical and economic advantages of this approach along with an outline of a recently initiated experimental program to verify them.

• Research Organization: Solar Energy Research Inst., Golden, CO (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-77CH00178
• OSTI ID: 5323880
• Report Number(s): SERI/TP-235-1559; CONF-820605-12; ON: DE82009140
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

08 HYDROGEN
080103 -- Hydrogen-- Production-- Steam Reformer Processes
33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS
330800* -- Emission Control-- Alternative Fuels
ALCOHOLS
AUTOMOBILES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMBUSTION
DATA
DESIGN
DISSOCIATION
ENGINES
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FUEL SYSTEMS
FUELS
GAS TURBINES
HEAT ENGINES
HYDROGEN FUELS
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
INFORMATION
INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES
MACHINERY
METHANOL
NUMERICAL DATA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDATION
PERFORMANCE
SYNTHETIC FUELS
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
TURBINES
TURBOMACHINERY
VEHICLES
WASTE HEAT UTILIZATION
WASTE PRODUCT UTILIZATION