Description:
Reference #: 01040
The University of South Carolina is offering licensing opportunities for this novel, low-maintenance system of converting fuel to liquefied petroleum gas.
Invention Description:
This invention allows a user to transform a variety of transportation fuels into liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The converter is designed to operate in remote locations; it requires only fuel and air, and does not require desulfurization, water, purified gas inlets, or additional reactants. As such, the fuel converter provides fuel diversification at the point of use while leveraging current distribution infrastructures.
Advantages and Benefits:
• Currently, no flexible fuel conversion system to LPG is commercially available.
• There is no evidence of sulfur poisoning in this proprietary system.
• This system only requires fuel and air.
• By producing LPG, the output fuel has a significantly larger volumetric energy density than hydrogen.
Potential Applications:
The system’s reactant feed flexibility, its strongest attribute, makes it appealing to both civilian and military applications. The system can consume any of the most popular fuels used in transportation, heating, and electricity production, while supplying fuel for portable power devices including fuel cells, burners, refrigerators, stoves, and lamps.
As an enabling technology, this novel system opens the possibilities for in-field fuel cell use, thus leveraging their benefits of increased power and energy density over batteries and adding diversity over generators. Because no comparable product exists in the market, this product is uniquely poised to attract market interests away from existing portable power sources.