Ammonia Hydrogen Carrier for Fuel Cell Based Transportation 2003-01-2251
Hydrogen is the preferred fuel for low-temperature fuel cells that are envisioned by some for future transportation. A pure hydrogen supply is technically challenging, presently uneconomical, energetically costly and dangerous in many respects. The use of hydrogen carriers, hydrogen-rich chemicals is supposed to overcome these impediments. Among the several possible hydrogen carriers [1], ammonia is an interesting candidate that has benefited from some research in the 1960s and recently for fuel cells [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26], internal combustion engines [3, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, and 35] and gas turbines [36, 37].
This paper summarizes the past research on ammonia as a hydrogen carrier for fuel cell based transportation. The physical and chemical properties, the production, the storage, the safety aspects, and the on-board processing of ammonia are summarized. Deriving from this review, the place of ammonia in fuel cell based transportation is analyzed. The type of transportation system most likely to accommodate ammonia's limitations and to benefit the most from its advantages is specifically discussed.
