A New Nickel Catalyst for Fuel Cells

摘要

Small-scale stationary fuel cells need an inexpensive method of reforming natural gas to produce hydrogen Although there are at least five different types of fuel cells, they all consume hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity and water. Most of the hydrogen comes from the steam-reforming of natural gas, or methane, which splits hydrogen from carbon in the methane molecule. This is done industrially in huge installations that produce tonnes of hydrogen per day. The challenge in supplying hydrogen to stationary fuel cells is how to produce hydrogen from natural gas on a small scale for domestic rather than commercial applications. Such small-scale reforming technologies have been under development for several years but are not yet widely available commercially.