Electric energy production through fuel cells fed by hydrogen obtained from ethanol catalytic reforming

摘要

The proposed process makes use of a raw material (ethanol), which is commonly obtained from totally renewable sources (cereals, sugar cane, molasses etc) and, in the future, from poor biomasses (wood and cellulose wastes), obtaining electric power without producing CO₂ nor generate additional polluting agents.The raw material is transformed by means of a catalytic reformer into a hydrogen cointaining gas mixture which is purified in a successive step. The hydrogen-enriched gas is fed to a fuel cell driven device such as a vehicle, marine vehicle, spacecraft or for household purposes.