Hydrogen Generation and Storage for Fuel Cell Systems

The aim is to develop new/improved nano-materials to remove sulfur containing compounds in reformate gas for use with hydrogen/proton exchange membrane (PEM) or solid oxide fuel cell systems. Small and efficient hydrogen/PEM or solid oxide fuel cell systems are in development to meet the power needs for vehicle-borne battery chargers, vehicle silent watch and field headquarters. The power range of interest is approximately 500 to 2000 Watts. The main difficulty that remains to be overcome for such applications is the development of compact fuel reformers that produce hydrogen gas on demand. Reformate purity is often an issue and processed fuels routinely contain refractory sulfur compounds such as thiophenes and alkyl substituted thiophenes. We propose here to use nano-adsorbents/oxidizers for reformate fuel desulfurization in fuel cell application with a novel carbon and ceramic supported materials structure that maximizes active material surface area and minimizes agglomeration that can occur over high temperature sorption and regeneration cycles. The optimum materials composition and nanostructure will be indentified and further process optimization and incorporation into 0.1-2 kW fuel cell systems will pave the way for future work.