Research collaboration in England has resulted in a synthetic, hydrogen-based fuel that would be more stable in price than oil and would produce no carbon emissions when burned in a combustion engine.
The fuel was developed by scientists from
Cella Energy -- a spinout company from Rutherford Appleton Laboratory -- University College London and Oxford University. It's based on a complex chemical compound called a hydride that contains hydrogen. Hydrides are used in batteries, such as nickel-metal batteries, to store energy, and have been looked at for storing hydrogen in fuel cell-powered electric cars.
Cella has a found a low-cost way to trap the hydride compound inside a nano-porous polymer micro bead. The micro-beads make hydride more efficient as a fuel, they help filter out the damaging chemicals and protect the hydrides from oxygen and water, so that they don't react and can be handled in air.
Because the micro-beads move as a fluid, they can be used in the following ways:
- storing and delivering hydrogen safely for use in an internal combustion engine or a fuel cell
- as a fuel additive to reduce the carbon emissions from a hydrocarbon fuel such as gasoline, diesel, JP-8, jet-fuel or kerosene.
“Early indications are that the micro-beads can be used in existing vehicles without engine modification,” said Cella Energy CEO Stephen Voller.
