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Wondering how the infrastructure for hydrogen-based vehicles could be set up quickly?  EERC might have the answer.

The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) Foundation in North Dakota was given a patent for a process to reform liquid fuels into hydrogen for vehicle fueling. This could be a great short-term solution to the hydrogen infrastructure problem for fuel-cell cars like the Honda Clarity.

The technology reforms alcohols or liquid fuels (which are chemically similar) into high-pressure hydrogen in an on-site, on-demand process at the time of fueling. This means that current gas pumps could be relatively easily converted to hydrogen pumps in a process that could be “on and off” according to the purchase of the consumer.  In other words, the “3-grade gas + diesel” pump could become a “3-grade gas + diesel + hydrogen” pump.

So far, it’s been tested on every kind of methanol fuel (aka gasoline) and is believed to work on ethanol (being tested now) and is likely to work with military-grade jet fuels as well.  The first public demonstration of this technology is slated for 2010 in Grand Forks, North Dakota with a simultaneous demonstration in Israel with the group’s sister-foundation there.

Pretty awesome and this could be a short-term answer to the hydrogen infrastructure problem. It works with biodiesel, so a renewable source for it is already readily available.

Source: Green Car Congress