PowerTap completes steam methane reformer design to boost hydrogen production.
[Proactive Investors] PowerTap Hydrogen Capital Corp (NEO:MOVE) (OTCMKTS:MOTNF) (FRA:2K6B) has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary PowerTap Hydrogen Fueling Corp has completed the engineering design of the PowerTap Gen3, improving its steam methane reformer (SMR), to boost the production of hydrogen, reduce feedstock requirements, and extend the life of the SMR itself.The company, which is focused on installing hydrogen production and dispensing fueling infrastructure in the US, said that the design of the SMR remains open to revisions, before the successful manufacture of a prototype that achieves all of the functionalities as intended.
In a statement, Kelley Owen, who is the chief operating officer at PowerTap Fueling, said: “The incorporation of these major design changes to the current applications represent significant improvement in the production of hydrogen today.”
PowerTap, which has offices in Vancouver, Canada and Irvine, California, highlighted the specific innovations noting that the improvement of heat transfer within the reactor vessel reduces the amount of feedstock gas needed to produce hydrogen and “considerably enhances the separation of hydrogen from the feedstock in the process.”
“The reduction of the reactor temperature and pressure reduces the overall stress on the vessel and tube system and extends the life of the system from ten years to over 15 years,” noted the company.
In addition, PowerTap explained that “burning of the syn gas from the shift reactor” reduces the volume of renewable natural gas feedstock required and “reduces greenhouse gas emitted into the atmosphere.”
Most importantly, the innovation around the design increases the overall life span of the SMR from ten years to 15 years through “advancement and improvement in the catalyst and, reduction of the water gas shift reactor vessel temperature and pressure.”
The firm reiterated that the effectiveness of the improvements to the SMR design will be tested during the manufacturing process, and may be tweaked as required.
With the completion of engineering design, the company is in the process of finalizing arrangements for the manufacturing of the prototypes of the PowerTap Gen3 unit. PowerTap is also finalizing its pre-application packages for the first three sites in the California counties of Monterey and Humboldt to submit in summer 2021.
The company said its efforts over the next few months will be focused on working closely with the California Hydrogen Business Council (CHBC) and the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), to process the application and, separately, obtain authorization for its Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) Hydrogen Refueling Infrastructure (HRI) credits from the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
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PowerTap completes steam methane reformer design to boost hydrogen production, 08 July 2021
