On Thursday, the University of São Paulo (USP) announced plans to build the world’s first factory to produce hydrogen from ethanol, a biofuel that would lower prices and make transportation easier.
The transformation of ethanol, a fuel produced from sugar cane, of which Brazil is the world’s largest producer, will be carried out through a chemical process known as steam reforming, according to the state university.
The method, which has already been tested in USP laboratories, consists of heating a mixture of ethanol and water vapor inside a reactor, at a temperature of 700 degrees Celsius, until it produces hydrogen.
The pilot plant will have the capacity to produce 4.5 kilograms of hydrogen per hour, enough to initially supply three buses and one light vehicle, and will start operating in the second half of 2024.
The production cost will be between six and nine dollars per kilogram, less than the cost of $13 for hydrogen produced in California, said in a press conference the director of the USP Greenhouse Gas Innovation Research Center, Júlio Meneghini, one of the project leaders.
Another advantage is that the chemical reaction center, developed by the Brazilian company Hytron, can be located in service stations with ethanol supply to produce hydrogen on site.
This saves some of the cost of transporting natural gas-based hydrogen, which must be compressed and liquefied before it can be transported to filling stations.
The president of Shell in Brazil, which finances the project with 50 million reais (about nine million euros), said that the objective is to “test the technological efficiency” of the factory to eventually “scale” the technology for commercial use. . .
Currently, more than 90% of the hydrogen produced in the world comes from heating with natural gas, while only the remaining 10% uses renewable energy sources.
Source: TSF
