ITM Power Plc (ITMPF)

[Gerry321]

Are ITM making synthetic petrol from green hydrogen ?
BBC July 2008 interview
Extract
“According to ITM CEO Jim Heathcote, the Home Refueller Unit - which is currently only a prototype - could be commercially available as soon as the end of this year. If they were mass produced he estimates they would initially cost around £2000.
He see the first market for the product as being large companies which use a lot of vehicles such as the Post Office.
But eventually it will become common in homes, he thinks. He said that the next stage of the firm's work would be to produce a liquid fuel. “
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
mmm.........
Why would ITM be focussing on a liquid fuel when they have a large number of potential markets already identified for their electrolysers and fuel cells ?
Whats so significant about liquid fuel that it has jumped up the ITM priority list ?
Could it be anything to do with the ITM patent US20060058402 entitled "Sequestration of carbon dioxide "......?

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Well


Here`s a view from the US about the significance of using green hydrogen to make synthetic petrol
see
http://bioage.typepad.com/greencarcongress/docs/HydrogenSynfuel.pdf

Extract
The production rate of CO2 from coal power plants in the US is 1875 million
metric tons/year. If this CO2 were captured using proven absorption processes
and used with hydrogen produced by solar, wind or nuclear energy to make
synfuel, it would provide all the hydrocarbon fuel needed for our transportation economy.
Since that transportation economy produces 1850 million metric tons
of CO2 per year, this synfuel process would cut our CO2 production in half. We
could shift from a petroleum-based transportation economy to a synfuel
transportation economy. This would reduce our petroleum use by 75%, and
reduce our CO2 production by 50% with no increase in coal use.

It would require significant quantities of hydrogen (255 million metric tons/year, or 25 times our current production) that would be produced from water using solar, wind or nuclear energy.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
It would also require a lot of low cost water electrolysers
And
If the US took 20yrs to build up to 255m metric tonnes pa of green hydrogen then
To produce 225m metric tonnes pa of green H2 pa from wind and solar power using electrolysers running 24/7 for 8 hrs per day would require the manufacturing output of electrolysers to increase year on year for 20 yrs by a staggering 154 million Kws pa equivalent to opening 15400 new factories the size of Sheffield every year for 20 yrs
and
We then need to add on the secret process being developed by ITM to mix Co2 and H2 to get a synthetic fuel ........times 225m tonnes of hydrogen

Rather a tall order for JH to take on .....and thats simply to save the US from peak oil never mind the UK and the rest of the world
But
Its an indication that ITM could be on the verge of a major trial in the carbon capture business