WASHINGTON, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- A new class of catalysts created by U.S. Department of Energy scientists is designed to aid in the production of hydrogen for use in fuel cells.
The Argonne National Laboratory researchers led by chemist Michael Krumpelt said they used "single-site" catalysts based on ceria or lanthanum chromite doped with either platinum or ruthenium to boost hydrogen production at lower temperatures during reforming.
"We've made significant progress in bringing the rate of reaction to where applications require it to be," Krumpelt said.
Krumpelt's initial experiments with single-site catalysts used platinum in gadolinium-doped ceria that, although it started to reform hydrocarbons at temperatures as low as 450 degrees Celsius, became unstable at higher temperatures. He then discovered that if he used ruthenium -- which costs only 1 percent as much as platinum -- in a perovskite matrix, he could initiate reforming at 450 degrees Celsius and still have good thermal stability.
Krumpelt presented his research this week in Boston, during the 234th national meeting of the American Chemical Society.
