FEASIBILITY STUDY OF UREA FUEL CELL
Lead Research Organisation:
Heriot-Watt University
Department Name: Sch of Engineering and Physical Science
Abstract
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, a very clean energy source and the most efficient fuel for fuel cells (FC) and can be produced from a variety of resources / coal, natural gas, biomass and water. At the moment, about 95% of the hydrogen comes from reforming natural gas; the remainder from water electrolysis, using electricity generated mainly by burning fossil fuels. Development of a clean and sustainable energy future based on a hydrogen economy could solve pollution problems and secure needs for abundant and affordable energy. However, hydrogen storage remains a major challenge for hydrogen economy. Hydrogen may be indirectly stored in light chemicals such as ammonia, methane, methanol etc. Hydrogen from reforming of natural gas may be further used to produce ammonia fertiliser. Cheap ammonia fertilizers are potential energy vectors as well. Adblue, a urea solution developed by Europe's AdBlue urea-SCR project is available across Europe. AdBlue is the major target fuel for the proposed ammonia fuel cells to power electric vehicles in the future. Already there are more than 200 locations in the UK holding stocks of GreenChem AdBlue. The current price for AdBlue is 45p per liter. The price may further drop on mass-production. The current price of fertiliser urea is 185/ton in UK although purer urea is required for fuel cell.This application is to study the feasibility to use ammonia fertilisers particular urea as an alternative energy vector. Whilst mature technologies to convert urea to ammonia exist, there is no technology available to use urea, such as AdBlue, to power electric vehicles. The major target is to demonstrate intermediate temperature fuel cells directly fuelled with ammonia (or indirectly from urea) to power electric vehicles for transport application in the future. CO2 for production of ammonia fertilisers may be collected and stored through CO2 sequestration technologies. Therefore urea fuel cell is an important complementary technology for carbon abatement. The as-developed fuel cells may potentially be fuelled with hydrogen and methanol as well. It is also a biofuel related technology if biofuel is used for the as-developed fuel cells.
Organisations
Publications
Ewing S
(2010)
Synthesis of Dendritic Nano-Sized Nickel for use as Anode Material in an Alkaline Membrane Fuel Cell
in Fuel Cells
Jiang Y
(2009)
Stability and conductivity study of NH4PO3-PTFE composites at intermediate temperatures
in Journal of Alloys and Compounds
Jiang Y
(2011)
A stable NH4PO3-glass proton conductor for intermediate temperature fuel cells
in Solid State Ionics
Lan R
(2010)
Direct Ammonia Alkaline Anion-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells
in Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters
Lan R
(2014)
Ammonia as a Suitable Fuel for Fuel Cells
in Frontiers in Energy Research
Lan R
(2010)
A direct urea fuel cell - power from fertiliser and waste
in Energy & Environmental Science
Lan R
(2009)
Conductivity of a new pyrophosphate Sn0.9Sc0.1(P2O7)1-d prepared by an aqueous solution method
in Journal of Alloys and Compounds
Qin H
(2018)
Introducing catalyst in alkaline membrane for improved performance direct borohydride fuel cells
in Journal of Power Sources
Tao S
(2009)
Conductivity of SnP2O7 and In-doped SnP2O7 prepared by an aqueous solution method
in Solid State Ionics
Xu W
(2016)
Recent progress in electrocatalysts with mesoporous structures for application in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells
in Journal of Materials Chemistry A
Xu W
(2017)
Directly growing hierarchical nickel-copper hydroxide nanowires on carbon fibre cloth for efficient electrooxidation of ammonia
in Applied Catalysis B: Environmental
Xu W
(2016)
Urea-Based Fuel Cells and Electrocatalysts for Urea Oxidation
in Energy Technology
Xu W
(2018)
Electrodeposited NiCu bimetal on carbon paper as stable non-noble anode for efficient electrooxidation of ammonia
in Applied Catalysis B: Environmental
Xu X
(2009)
Proton conductivity of Al(H2PO4)3-H3PO4 composites at intermediate temperature
in Solid State Ionics