Mobile hydrogen reformers as a novel approach to decarbonise the transport sector

As part of a concerted global effort to move towards net zero greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century, a focus on moving away from a fossil fuel-based economy is driving technical developments in decarbonising energy production. A key platform in a ‘post-fossil fuel’ economy is hydrogen. The optimism with hydrogen is that it can be utilised from a number of sources or energy carriers, such as ammonia or liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC), which in turn enables a range of specific use cases in multiple application areas. Reforming hydrogen from hydrogen carriers requires the use of efficient catalytic processes and smart reactor engineering. Over recent years a new generation of 3D printed metallic or ceramic catalytic reactors has entered the chemical reactor scene, fundamentally changing how reactors are designed and catalyst handling is performed. Herein we focus on recent advances using these reactor systems for hydrogen reforming in a mobile setting.