Ammonia storage for on-vehicle engine
AssigneeGM Global Technology Operations LLC
InventorGholam-Abbas Nazri
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Ammonia is used as precursor source of hydrogen fuel in an on-vehicle internal combustion engine. Ammonia is stored as, for example, a ligand in an on-vehicle transition metal composition. Upon demand for hydrogen by the vehicle's engine control system, ammonia is expelled as a gas from some of the composition and the ammonia gas is dissociated into a mixture of hydrogen and nitrogen and delivered as a fuel-containing mixture to the engine. In a preferred embodiment, the hydrogen is used as a supplement to gasoline as a fuel for engine operation.
Claims9
A method of operating an on-vehicle internal combustion engine using hydrogen as a fuel, the vehicle comprising an engine operating control system for selectively demanding delivery of hydrogen to the engine during a period of engine operation, the method comprising:
- storing a hydrogen precursor composition comprising an ammonia-containing transition metal coordination compound on the vehicle in an ammonia storage vessel;
- and upon demand for hydrogen for the engine,
- heating at least a portion of the hydrogen precursor composition to expel ammonia gas;
- dissociating the ammonia gas into a gaseous mixture of hydrogen and nitrogen;
- absorbing at least a portion of the nitrogen from the gaseous mixture of hydrogen and nitrogen to form a hydrogen-enriched gas;
- and
- delivering the hydrogen-enriched gas to the engine.
A method of providing hydrogen to a hydrogen-using internal combustion engine used to propel an automotive vehicle, the method comprising
- storing, in a first compartment of an on-vehicle ammonia storage vessel, an ammonia-containing transition metal material as a hydrogen precursor, the ammonia-containing material being solid or liquid in the on-vehicle first compartment;
- and, when the engine requires hydrogen;
- successively transferring portions of the ammonia-containing material from the first compartment to a second compartment of the ammonia storage vessel;
- successively heating portions of the ammonia-containing material in the second compartment to expel ammonia, as a hydrogen precursor, from the ammonia-containing material and from the on-vehicle second compartment, thereby forming an ammonia-depleted material;
- successively transferring ammonia-depleted material from the second compartment to a third compartment of the ammonia storage vessel;
- and periodically,
- replacing ammonia-depleted material in the on-vehicle ammonia storage vessel with ammonia-containing material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.