Ethanol fuel cells (Year 2)

Luca Zullo

Ethanol is one of the main products of corn and as the demand for liquid fuels for light-duty vehicles is expected to remain flat and progressively decline as electrification and more stringent fuel economy standards take place, there is strong interest to develop new markets and applications for this versatile biofuel. In this project, we aim to explore the feasibility of developing ethanol as a carrier for greenhydrogen and assess the market opportunity of relevant emerging technologies. If the analysis indicates that the relevant technologies are at an appropriate level of maturity, a demonstration project will be defined.

The project’s four main goals:
1. Review, assess, and benchmark existing commercial or pre-commercial but past early prototype, labscale level, technologies using ethanol as a feedstock for hydrogen production. Identify vendors, technology readiness level, and expected Levelized hydrogen or power production costs.
2. Identify the most promising deployment strategies and application areas with techno-economic analysis, including a precise gap analysis identifying technical, economic, and regulatory barriers to adoption.
3. Analyze adoption scenarios with potential impact on the ethanol industry and corn production
4. Define scope, budget, and resource requirements of a Minnesota-based commercial-scale demonstration project, likely creating a consortium of stakeholders positioned to raise the funding necessary for commercial-scale demonstrations.