Brian Haynes - Chemical Engineering

Litle wonders: hydrogen production on a micro scale

Professor Haynes has worked for more than 30 years in the area of energy utilisation, especially in combustion and in advanced heat-transfer applications. He works with industry support from Australia and abroad to develop radically new approaches to the manufacture of chemicals.

Haynes’ chemical plant is highly energy efficient. The processes are intensified, leading to very compact systems compared with conventional facilities. This means chemicals can be produced economically even on a small scale. At the same time, the technology is perfectly scaleable and very large systems can also be constructed.

Currently operating in Haynes’ lab is an extraordinarily efficient steam-methane reformer which produces about 5Nm3 of hydrogen per hour – comparable with the rate needed for a small hydrogen-powered vehicle refueling station. This level of production would be sufficient to power a fuel cell producing 7kW of electricity.

Although it has a production rate about 10,000 times less than a world-scale reforming plant, this little unit has the same overall efficiency, thus significantly reducing the cost of small-scale hydrogen production and facilitating a transition to a hydrogenbased fuel system.

Looking to the longer term, distributed manufacturing provides a route for using biomass in the production of fuels and chemicals. Biomass feedstocks are distributed widely and their use in centralised process plants incurs significant transportation costs. Smaller, more widely distributed plants can overcome this problem.

Haynes is collaborating on two projects with Thomas Maschmeyer that take advantage of the highly integrated structures he has developed. These projects aim to take nonfood sources of biomass, including cellulosic materials and animal fats, and convert them to useful fuels and chemicals.