Hydrogen fueling station from ethanol
Hydrogen fueling station from ethanol – USP’s Cidade Universitária, in the capital of São Paulo, will be the stage for a pioneering project in the world that includes the construction of the first experimental fueling station for renewable hydrogen (H2) using ethanol. With an area of 425 m², the pilot plant will produce 4.5 kg of H2 per hour, dedicated to supplying up to three buses and a light vehicle.
Toyota participates in the Ethanol to H2 R&D project with the offer of a Mirai model, the first hydrogen vehicle in the world commercialized on a large scale, whose batteries are charged from the chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen in the fuel cell (Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle ).
The forecast announced this Thursday, the 10th, at an event held at the Polytechnic of the University of São Paulo, is that the experimental station will start operating in the second half of 2024.
Shell Brasil invested BRL 50 million in the project using resources obtained through the RD&I clause of the ANP, the National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANP). The other partners are Hytron, Raízen, Senai CETIQT and the University of São Paulo itself, through the RCGI, Research Center for Innovation in Greenhouse Gases.
The hydrogen produced at the station will fuel the Toyota Mirai, to check its performance, and also the Marcopolo buses provided by EMTU/SP, which will circulate exclusively within the university city.
“Brazil is a country with a strong vocation for biofuels”, recalled the president of Toyota Brasil, Rafael Chang. “We understand hydrogen as a clean, renewable energy source that plays an important role in efforts to reduce CO2 emissions. The partnership in this project is the company’s first step to locally test the use of this new technology”.
The executive concluded by saying that the company is interested and willing to work together with the government of the State of São Paulo to make sustainable road transport using renewable hydrogen from ethanol.
The objective of the project, as highlighted by the president of Shell Brasil, Cristiano Pinto da Costa, is precisely to demonstrate that ethanol can be a vector for renewable hydrogen, taking advantage of the industry’s existing logistics. “The technology can help to decarbonize sectors that consume energy from fossil fuels”, stressed the executive.
Among the equipment to be installed at the fueling station, one of the main ones is the ethanol steam reformer developed and manufactured by the company Hytron. This is where the conversion of ethanol into hydrogen will occur through a chemical process called steam reforming, which is when ethanol, subjected to specific temperatures and pressures, reacts with water inside a reactor.
“We are putting together Hytron’s pioneering Brazilian technology to demonstrate a disruptive solution, where hydrogen produced from ethanol will play an even more relevant and high-impact role in the country’s and the world’s energy transition,” commented Daniel Lopes, commercial director from Hytron.
The calculations on emissions and costs of the hydrogen production process will be validated throughout the operation of the experimental station. “Our estimate at the moment is that the cost of producing hydrogen from ethanol is comparable to the cost of hydrogen from reforming natural gas in the Brazilian context. The emissions are comparable to the process that performs the electrolysis of water fed with electricity from a wind source”, informed Julio Meneghini, scientific director of the RCGI.
