Newton Fund - Renewable energy source based on the recovery, purification and storage of hydrogen from chlor-alkali plants

Clean Fuel from Industrial Process By-Product

Where distributed industrial chemical facilities are deployed it is often difficult to fully utilise all the by-products into useful end-products, and in the case of small, distributed chlor-alkali plants the by-product hydrogen is often vented. Hydrogen can be used as a clean fuel for transport applications with the significant advantage that it burns cleanly, improving air quality. To be fully utilised as a clean transport fuel, chlor-alkali hydrogen must be pressurised and existing technology is energy inefficient and expensive. This project aims to develop an electrochemical hydrogen compressor (ECHC) that perform at least some of the stages of the compression need to make wasted hydrogen a useful resource.

An ECHC works by breaking down a hydrogen molecule into hydrogen ions and then using a low cost electrical driving force to push the hydrogen ions across a membrane where ma mechanical restriction leads to the build-up of pressure. The electricity used can be renewably generated.

The Mexican partners will take the lead to design, build and test protype ECHCs, incorporating advanced, low cost catalysts to be developed by the UK partners. By working in this way, the Mexican partners will develop technology that can be commercially exploited from Mexico for use in-country and overseas via exports, establishing new businesses in Mexico and contributing to improvements in air quality by reduced vehicle emissions. PV3 Technologies as a developer of the advanced catalyst in the UK will discuss licencing options such that the Mexican partners can develop new commercial opportunities in catalyst manufacturing, further strengthening the economic case of this project.