Analysis of Membrane Reactor Application in Rail and Marine Applications with Zero Carbon Alternative Fuels

Abstract

Global warming is one of the main challenges that society is facing. Hydrogen, because of its high energy density and zero greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions when used to generate energy, is one of the most interesting alternatives to generate energy onboard transportation means. On the other hand, hydrogen presents important challenges in the time of its transportation and storage. This review aims to compare different onboard energy generation systems based on hydrogen and other hydrogen carriers with and without membrane reactors. The technologies that are presented in this work are Internal Combustion Engines (ICE), Membrane Reactors (MR) and Fuel Cells (FC). How to store the hydrogen onboard is also a challenge and therefore, it was analysed which were the best solutions for it. After considering global efficiencies it was determined that storing hydrogen in the form of ammonia combined with a membrane reactor to generate hydrogen and to feed it to a fuel cell to generate electricity was the most efficient system among the proposed ones considering the energy efficiency and the hydrogen carrier storage. In this study, exhaust gas after treatments and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) systems were also included when needed to compare different propulsion systems.