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MVTG, the advantage of the MVTG formic acid fuel cell is in part about the problems of delivering hydrogen. Formic acid is a safe, non flammable liquid, high energy density source of hydrogen that can be used in the patented MVTG fuel cell.

Here is some info on the known infrastructure delivery issues Hydrogen faces:

http://m.hydrogenfuelnews.com/auto-industry-could-face-a-roadblock-due-to-hydrogen-fuel-infrastructure/8513410/

http://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/proj_infrastructure_analysis.html

http://www.navigantresearch.com/research/hydrogen-infrastructure

There first real problem is cost effectively making the hydrogen gas in the first place:

http://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/proj_production_delivery.html

Problem #2 is storing and piping the hydrogen.

http://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/proj_storage.html

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100428/full/4641262a.html

Regardless of range, every vehicle needs fuel at some point. And here lies hydrogen's chicken-and-egg problem: fuel-cell vehicles will never sell in a big way until there is a viable network of service stations to fuel them. But no one is going to invest the capital required to create such a network until there is a fleet of thirsty hydrogen vehicles to provide a market.

Hydrogen pumps can and have been added to existing petrol stations, where at first glance they look much the same as conventional pumps. Because the hydrogen used is a compressed gas, filling the tank is not just a matter of placing a nozzle in the petrol-tank opening and letting gravity take care of the rest. Instead, a tight seal has to be established between the nozzle and car, and high-powered pumps have to force hydrogen through the nozzle until the desired pressure is reached. In practice, the current-generation hydrogen pumps are already easy and safe enough for an average consumer to use. But they do have to work perfectly if tanks are to be filled to full pressure; at present their performance is solid but variable.

A larger question facing car manufacturers is how rapidly the network of hydrogen-filling stations will spread. In the United States, for example, the number of hydrogen pumps is at present measured in dozens, and there seems to be little coordinated effort to change the situation. And until recently, things seemed much the same elsewhere.



Frankly I think it makes far more economic sense to make formic acid out of waste CO2 to fuel the nations fleets of transport vehicles. No refrigeration needed, no fire protection needed, no compressors or high pressure heavy wall tanks needed.


Iceland is already doing something similar using geothermal energy to convert CO2 and steam from the geothermal power sources with an Electrolytic reactor to make methanol.

In fact the current head chemical engineer at the MVTG lab, Patrick Dodd, who is also a director on the BOD of MVTG now, worked on the Iceland design and plant construction in recent years. That plant was just fired up last year.

But methanol is a low cost, low BTU fuel (not worth near as much as formic acid per ton), it is very volatile and flammable and problematic to use even in special methanol fuel cells.