Technology

HELBIO is building its technology portfolio on the solid foundation of 25 years of research by Prof. Verykios and his team. This research effort has concentrated in the development of efficient catalysts, reactors, processes and systems for fuel processing. It has resulted in six European, U.S. or international patents, and it has been described in over 150 publications in international journals. Some of the highlights of technology development include:

Current Activities

Design, construction and testing of a commercial unit for production of hydrogen for industrial applications

HELBIO has designed and is constructing a commercial unit for production of hydrogen for industrial applications. The raw material for hydrogen production will be LPG (liquefied petroleum gas, primarily propane / butane) and natural gas (primarily methane). The unit was designed using the same concepts as the multi-fuel processor GH2 as well as HELBIO’s catalysts and reactors. This unit will be integrated with a PSA (pressure swing adsorption) unit so as to separate the effluent gas stream and produce hydrogen of very high purity (>99.9%).

Construction and operation of a pilot plant unit

Moving from laboratory micro or bench sized units producing a few liters to a few hundreds of liters of hydrogen per hour to commercial units producing cubic meters of hydrogen per hour is a feat full of uncertainties and pitfalls. Careful technology evolution and a measured scale-up to more commercially relevant production capacities are needed. A step along this path is the construction and operation of a pilot plant.

A pilot plant unit producing about 5Nm3/h of H2 (enough to produce about 5 kWe) was designed and constructed so as to establish and verify the technology at relatively large scale and also to test the catalysts for the different reactions and different fuels, for long times of operation with frequent start-ups and shutdowns. This unit is not heat - integrated and it utilizes classical fixed bed reactors. The pilot plant was commissioned in Q3 2003 and operated for thousands of hours testing catalysts for reforming reactions of various fuels. It proved the efficacy of the catalysts under commercially relevant conditions and provided invaluable lessons on operating an integrated system.

Technical feasibility study for small (10kW) and large (200kW) units.

HELBIO, with the assistance of a major European technology house, completed a technical feasibility study for small fuel processor units (in the neighbourhood of 10 kW) as well as for large units (up to 200 kW). This study evaluated different scenarios employing different reforming technologies and different fuel cell types and established the optimal technical routes. Technology selection led to the basic engineering design of a 200 kWe unit using steam reforming of ethanol and PEM fuel cells for combined heat and power (CHP) generation. Both basic and detailed engineering designs were carried out for a prototype 10 kWe unit. These designs established the technical and economic feasibility of such units and provided the basis for later developments towards technology commercialization.

Biomass based CHP systems

Following the development of the green hydrogen concept, HELBIO undertook a major technical, economic and feasibility study to examine the viability of the concept and determine the drivers affecting a successful implementation. The study concluded that there exist major benefits (economic, environmental and social) for the application of biomass based CHP systems, especially for remote, out-of-grid applications, such as islands, and for environmentally sensitive or protected areas such as nature preserves, schools, hospitals etc, due to its low noise and near zero emissions characteristics. The benefits multiply when energy supply security or carbon tax issues are included.