Another green fuel system for large ships?

Ships, and especially the larger ones, are highly polluting due to the type of fuel they use, and serious work is being done to find non-polluting propulsion alternatives. But it is not easy.

In Europe, a project called  HyMethShip  is being carried out, which has presented an alternative that seems viable, and eliminates one of the greatest risks of using hydrogen as a fuel. Because carrying a lot of pressurized hydrogen as fuel poses a certain risk.

The Fraunhofer Institute has participated in this project, among others, and they use methanol as fuel. Inside the ship, methanol is mixed with water, heated and a reaction is achieved that generates hydrogen and CO2.

With hydrogen, the ship moves without generating polluting waste, and the CO2 is stored in a tank for later use. In this way the ship moves without polluting the environment.

Once the ship reaches port, the CO2 generated is discharged, and the ship is loaded with methanol for the next trip. You can see a diagram in the bottom photo.

In the land facilities, methanol is generated by mixing hydrogen and CO2, and that methanol is used as fuel to move the ships.

In order for the reactions that generate hydrogen, CO2 and methanol to take place, researchers have created "reactors" where these chemical reactions take place, and the catalyst materials that help them to take place.

From what the technicians indicate, methanol can be a good fuel, since its energy density is double that of liquid hydrogen, and (something important) it is transported much more safely.

In the prototype with which they have worked, they have achieved an energy of 1 MW, and the next step is to try to get a larger one that produces 20 MW. or even more.

If they are successful with high power systems using methanol as fuel, the utilization could be for additional uses besides transport ships.

There are many industrial activities that require large inputs of energy that could take advantage of this development. Time will tell.

It is nice to see concrete results to try to solve the enormous challenge of the Climate Emergency that is upon us. The "problem" is time, because that is a factor that we do not have any more.

We have lost many years and now we are behind the problem, although many people have not yet found out and continue to live as if nothing is going on. Things of life.