VATIS UPDATE Article

A team of researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), the United States, have replaced palladium – which is typically used to create hydrogen fuel cells – with liquid metals that can yield pure hydrogen. This could be used to create the new wave of energy efficient vehicles. “We are still in the early stage but the application of this is in the distributed generation of hydrogen,” said Ravindra Datta, at WPI.

“If you want to have fuel cell cars or you want to have hydrogen fuel cell filling stations you want to be able to produce hydrogen locally rather than transporting it over long distances. You could conceivably have less complex and elaborate plants to produce fuel hydrogen,” added Datta. One of the main issues is that while hydrogen is the most abundant element in nature, it is almost always chemically bound to other elements, including with oxygen in water.

Pure hydrogen must be separated from another molecule through a multi-step process in which the hydrocarbons react with high-temperature steam in the presence of a catalyst to produce carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and molecular hydrogen. The hydrogen can then be separated from the other gases through a multi-step process that comes with a cumbersome chemical process and a high cost.