Fuel processing activities at European level: A panoramic overview
Introduction
The expected future energy landscape will be mainly dependent on future energy demand, which is linked with the world's population growth and with the expanding energy requirements from industry and transportation sector. The world's population, in fact, is expected to increase from approximately 7.2 billion in 2012 to about 9.6 billion by 2050 (equal to a 33% increase) [1], with further long-term economic growth especially in non-OECD countries (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) [2].
World's energy demand will continue to grow in all sectors between now and 2040, as reported in Fig. 1. In particular, the highest energy demand growth rate is forecasted in the industry sector (mainly manufacturing, agriculture, construction, and mining), where the bulk chemicals and the petroleum refining industries consume most of energy. The transportation sector in non-OECD countries is expected to grow, too, but with a lower growth rate. An exception is forecasted for the OECD countries, where in the transportation sector the growth rate will be slightly negative, thanks to a significant decline in energy consumption by light duty vehicles (LDVs) and higher fuel efficiency compared to now [3]; more fuel-efficient new vehicles will, in fact, gradually replace older ones on the road. Within the transportation sector, only the energy demand for high duty vehicles (HDVs) is expected to increase, with the largest growth among all transportation modes (vehicles, aircrafts, marine vessels, railways) [3]. The residential sector, which accounts mainly for room heating and cooling, and water heating, will remain almost constant for OECD countries, whereas for the non-OECD countries it is expected to slightly grow. Finally the commercial sector is expected to slightly increase the energy consumed, for both OECD and non-OECD countries, in part for cooling and lighting commercial floor space, in part for installations of new data center servers for the information technology (IT) sector, which require high demand for ventilation and air conditioning [4], [5].
According to the World Energy Outlook 2013 [2], renewable energy and nuclear power are the world's fastest-growing energy sources. However, fossil fuels and natural gas will continue to supply almost 80% of world energy through 2040, as evident from Fig. 2. Moreover, increasing supply of tight gas, shale gas, and coal-bed methane will support the forecasted growth for worldwide natural gas use [6], [7]. It is expected that coal will grow faster than petroleum and other liquid fuels until 2030, mostly because of an increasing consumption of coal in China [8] and the high oil prices [2], [9], [10].
Energy consumption is an important issue of the global climate change debate [6], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15]: recent monitoring of the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii [16], has shown a constant increasing trend in the last years, as reported in Fig. 3, with a raise by about 2 ppm per year. Energy-related CO2 emissions, produced by the combustion of liquid fuels, natural gas, and coal, account for much of the world's anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [17].
Considering the expected energy growth trend, a secure and competitive energy supply will be a key challenge to meet our future energy requirements. Bearing in mind the environmental concerns linked with the emissions of GHGs, the most important actions to be taken into account are related to significantly slow-down the rate of energy-related CO2 emissions [18], [19], [20], decouple CO2 emissions from the economic growth [21], [22], [23], and favor a more innovative technological development, focused on highly fuel-efficient vehicles and industries [24], [25].
On such a context, the European Union's strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, the so-called “Europe 2020”, aims to address safe energy supply, resource efficiency and climate change challenges by reducing GHGs emissions levels by 20% (or even 30% when possible) lower than 1990, increasing the share of renewable energies to 20%, and increasing the energy efficiency by 20% by 2020 [20], [23], [26], [27]. One of the main instruments to achieve the aforementioned goals is the “Horizon 2020” program, the biggest EU Research and Innovation program over the period 2014 to 2020, which couples excellent science and industrial leadership, together with societal challenges [27].
The CO2 emissions reduction target means the transition towards a low-carbon economy, which implies the almost complete decarbonization of Europe's power sector. The decarbonization process could be achieved along various pathways, such as nuclear energy, hydroelectric power, geothermal energy, solar energy, wind energy, the use of various kind of biomass, and the use of hydrogen as energy carrier to reach a true “hydrogen economy” [28], [29], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34], [35], [36], [37]. The transition from current fossil-based to hydrogen economy includes two key elements: CO2 capture and sequestration (CCS) with the utilization of solid carbon [13], [38], [39], [40], [41], [42], [43], and production of carbon-neutral synthetic fuels from bio-carbon and hydrogen generated from water using carbon-free sources, possibly employing renewable energies [37], [44], [45], [46], [47], [48], [49], [50], [51], [52], [53], [54], [55], [56], [57], [58].
On this point of view, fuel cell (FC) technology and fuel processing of fossil and renewable fuels are playing a crucial role in future sustainable and distributed energy generation for mobile, portable and stationary applications. Fuel processing is the conversion of hydrocarbons, alcohol fuels and other alternative energy carriers to a gas product containing hydrogen [59], [60]. Specifically, the employment of hydrogen on FC technology could ensure significant advantages in terms of efficiency and environmental impact, with reduced production of CO2, representing thus an important alternative to the conventional energy production systems. Therefore, considering the actual lack of infrastructure for hydrogen production, storage and distribution, equipment operating with FCs fed with hydrogen produced by reforming of fossil fuel to generate power represent a valid and interesting alternative to overcome such an unfavorable situation [61], [62], [63], [64]. Moreover, the reforming of fossil fuels could represent one practical option to create hydrogen filling stations realized with on-site fuel processor (FP) units fed with hydrocarbon fuels already present on the road, i.e. gasoline, diesel oil, natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) [59], [60], [65], [66], [67], [68], [69]. This strategy would allow taking advantage of the existing fuel infrastructure with a limited environmental impact, and it would secure a smooth carbon–neutral transition from fossil-based to future hydrogen economy [24], [34], [35], [36], [37], [70], [71], [72], [73].
In this context, research and development on several reforming systems for FP units has gained a prevalent role in the perspective of solving these problems in a short to medium term. Moreover, FP is a viable option to meet the limited space demands on board of vehicles, specifically for auxiliary power units (APUs), when traction is not required, and to provide compact systems in stationary applications, precisely for combined heat and power units (CHPs) [59], [69]. The present manuscript provides a panoramic overview of the most recent work carried out at European level on the research and development of FPs for various type of FCs, with an update on actual existing commercial products manufactured in Europe.
Section snippets
Fuel processing technology: R&D in Europe
A FP converts hydrocarbons, alcohol fuels or other alternative renewable fuels to a hydrogen-rich product gas, named reformate [59]. Depending on the reforming reactions, the reformate usually contains variable amounts of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, water, methane, and eventually nitrogen. A FP can be realized in a variety of configurations depending on its ultimate application. The carbon monoxide, in fact, can be partially or totally removed, depending on the final destination
Discussion
Sustainable and distributed production of energy and improving the utilization of fossil fuel resources have triggered R&D efforts in the recent decades. In this perspective, R&D on several reforming systems for FPs, APUs and CHPs has gained a prevalent role in the perspective of solving these problems in a short to medium term. The high efficiency coupled with the multiple technological options makes a FC-based APU the technology of choice for an engine-independent supply of electrical power
Conclusions and outlook
Considering the expected energy growth trend, and the environmental concerns linked with the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), a secure and competitive energy supply will be a key challenge to meet our future energy requirements. Thus, the most important actions to be taken into account are related to significantly slow-down the rate of energy-related CO2 emissions, decouple CO2 emissions from the economic growth, and favor a more innovative technological development, focused on highly
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