Automobile Engineering

Thermal Hydrogen is an energy economy engineered to enable economy-wide decarbonization through new chemical energy carriers. The economy is built upon the principle of using both byproducts of water (or CO2) electrolysis hydrogen (or CO) and pure oxygen. The pure oxygen is used to enable emissions free hydrocarbon utilization without “Carbon Capture”, just sequestration. The energy carrier produced from electrolysis is combined with the output of auto-thermal reforming to produce either methanol or ammonia. The methanol is envisioned to provide electric range for battery electric vehicles by using a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). The heat from the SOFC reforms the methanol back to syngas, and the syngas is oxidized and produces both electricity and heat. The purpose of using an SOFC is to enable oxidation of syngas rather than pure oxygen. SOFC’s also allow the products to be limited to CO2 and H2O, also known as carbonated water. Given the ease of handling carbonated water, it is envisioned to be stored onboard the vehicle and returned to the gas station for eventual sequestration and recycling. The advantage of plug-in hybrid SOFC vehicle is not limited to turning CO2 emissions into water production. Plug-hybrid SOFC vehicles require only a very small battery (for acceleration) and a very small fuel cell (for range). Just a 10-kWh battery is sufficient to provide acceleration (~110 kW) and range of ~50 km. The medium sized battery provides acceleration while the fuel cell provides heat and range with just a ~10 kW fuel cell.

Overall, the car provides the best of both electric and hydrocarbon worlds—lightweight, electric torque, and instantly refuellable.