Hydrogen Production from Simulated Gasoline using Nickel-Based Catalysts

Introduction Fuel cells, which produce electricity directly from hydrogen and oxygen, offer a clean and efficient potential alternative to internal combustion engines for generating power for portable and transportation applications. However, there currently is no infrastructure for the wide scale production and distribution of hydrogen to the transportation market. Instead of building new infrastructure, it is possible to produce hydrogen on-demand from common hydrocarbon fuels. [1] Several catalytic processes can be used to produce hydrogen from hydrocarbons. The most common are partial oxidation (POX), steam reforming (SR), and autothermal reforming (ATR), all of which produce primarily hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and some carbon dioxide. In partial oxidation the fuel is combusted with a sub-stoichiometric quantity of oxygen. Steam reforming uses water to reform the fuel, is highly endothermic and requires a significant heat input, usually provided by combusting some amount of the fuel. Autothermal reforming combines POX and SR by reacting the fuel with both steam and oxygen. In ATR the operating temperature is moderated, and the addition of extra heat through fuel combustion may be eliminated. Since there is no external heat transfer limitation, it seems that ATR would be more responsive to transients in operation than SR. ATR produces higher hydrogen yields than POX, since hydrogen is produced from both steam and fuel, as opposed to just the fuel.