UK company OM finds backing for retrofittable hydrogen generator
Is this UK project the key to an engine partially fuelled by hydrogen extracted from water on the go?The on-board hydrogen extractor for cars is one of those ideas like the perpetual motion machine -- the contraption capable of driving itself by producing more energy than it consumes. That is to say: terrific concept, a nightmare in the execution. As the Autoblog people point out, they have to date drawn on the alternator for the power to do their thing, rendering the whole process a bit pointless by contributing less energy back into the system than they consume.
Now, however, from the UK, comes another approach to the idea. A startup outfit called OM Energy Ltd has been working on a so-called Electro Hydrogen Generator (EHG) which uses the internal combustion engine's excess heat energy to power the electrolysis process through which the hydrogen atoms are extracted from water. The idea is to produce enough of the superflammable gas to mix 20:80 with liquid fuel
They've found backing, too, from UK multistream clean-tech company Ultra Green, working through the publicly funded UK Trade and Investment's Global Entrepreneur Program. The aim is to develop a retrofittable system to sell to auto manufacturers.
Not much is forthcoming at this point about precisely how the technology works, but OM and Ultra Green are claiming emission reductions of 30 percent and fuel savings of 20 percent. Ultra Green chairman Antony Blakey admits the enterprise is facing "a number of practical engineering challenges", but says it's well advanced in fitting versions of the system to two vehicles -- a small 4WD powered by a 1.6-litre engine and a much larger military vehicle powered by a 12-litre engine. Blakey says the company hopes to have other incarnations of the technology on public display by mid 2010.
The newly branded Ultra Green OM is developing the system to give private and public transport sectors and fuel companies a quick leg-up in the race to meet increasingly stringent European and US CAFE emission and fuel efficiency laws to come into effect in 2013. Blakey described it in a statement as "[an] obvious interim step before pure hydrogen fuel becomes readily available."
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