Solid Fuel Transfer for Vehicular Hydrogen

A University of Wyoming faculty member is attempting to create a 1/10th laboratory scale, by volumetric flow rate, fuel transport system for ammonia borane to be used in hydrogen powered vehicles. Ammonia borane is a powdered medium that has high hydrogen content by weight. Due to the difficulty of transporting ammonia borane, a co-rotating twin screw extruder is being developed by HyTrans, a Mechanical Engineering Senior Design team, to transport the ammonia borane from a reactor to a tank. A laboratory scale model has been designed to have 1/10th of a vehicle's volumetric flow rate. The twin screw transport system is designed to fit on a compact vehicle. A screw configuration will be most beneficial for the transportation of ammonia borane due to the ability to cleanse itself and propel material forward. Ammonia borane is too expensive to buy and test; therefore, surrogate materials have been explored to closely match the material properties of ammonia borane. Corn meal and low density polyethylene have similar characteristics to ammonia borane and will be used as the surrogates for testing.