A New Nickel Catalyst for Fuel Cells
THE MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO NICKEL AND ITS APPLICATIONS
March 2005
Volume 20, Number 2
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RESEARCHERS IN GERMANY have developed a low-cost nickel catalyst suitable for the steam reforming of
natural gas by small-scale fuel processors.
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Small-scale stationary fuel cells need an inexpensive method of reforming natural gas to produce
hydrogen
By Dr. Gerry Crawford
Nickel Magazine, March 2005 -- 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.
The German chemical company BASF has been focusing on economic ways to produce hydrogen of sufficient
purity for fuel cells. One of the problems is limiting the concentration of residual carbon monoxide in the
hydrogen, which poisons the fuel cell catalysts and decreases their efficiency and effectiveness.
Existing small-scale reforming technologies require costly precious metal catalysts to generate hydrogen
of sufficient purity, but BASF has developed base-metal catalysts for most of the reforming. These new
catalysts based on nickel, copper and other metals perform similarly to precious-metal-based catalysts but
offer significant cost savings.
A nickel catalyst has been developed and adopted for the dedicated challenges of small fuel processors
used in the steam-reforming of natural gas. The catalyst provides high activity (even after thousands of
start-ups and shut-downs), a low de-activation rate, and resistance to changes in the atmosphere.
This development shows that catalysts can be used with nickel as the active component not only for
hydrogen generation on an industrial scale but for small-scale fuel processors. The excellent performance of
the new catalysts, in combination with the low price, is a big step forward in the commercialization of fuel
cell systems for the combined generation of heat and electricity in households.
This technological advance highlights the mysterious catalytic quality of nickel, one of the more
intriguing and valuable properties of this truly amazing metallic element.
Dr. Gerry Crawford is a Toronto-based consultant to the Nickel Institute.
PHOTOS: BASF plc
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