CATALYTIC DECOMPOSITION OF NATURAL-GAS TO HYDROGEN FOR FUEL-CELL APPLICATIONS

This paper presents a concept for a fuel processor based on the cataly tic decomposition of natural gas to hydrogen for fuel cell application s. In this concept, natural gas is decomposed over a catalyst; carbon is deposited on the catalyst and hydrogen is produced. Once the cataly tic bed is filled with carbon, it is regenerated by burning the carbon in air. A fuel processor based on this concept instead of steam refor ming of natural gas (the process currently in use) would produce a hyd rogen gas stream with purity greater than 95% (compared to 75% with co nventional steam reforming) that would not contain any CO or CO2. Such a system would be potentially simpler, smaller and less expensive com pared to the current fuel processor technology based on steam reformin g. The proposed fuel processor concept is particularly attractive for fuel cells requiring pure hydrogen feed streams, such as SPFCs. Crown copyright (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of Inte rnational Association for Hydrogen Energy.