Nickel as Catalyst in PEM Fuel Cell

[P-man]

I have made a discovery! If you use pure hydrogen made from electrolysis, then you can use nickel as your catalyst in the fuel cell. The reason they use platinum is that most of the hydrogen today is made from steam reforming of natural gas or methane, and the hydrogen has impurities in it, such as CO. The platinum is not affected much by the CO but the nickel is. Therefore vote for electrolysis as the hydrogen producer of tomorrow!

[CraigD]

Originally Posted by P-man

I have made a discovery! If you use pure hydrogen made from electrolysis, then you can use nickel as your catalyst in the fuel cell. The reason they use platinum is that most of the hydrogen today is made from steam reforming of natural gas or methane, and the hydrogen has impurities in it, such as CO. The platinum is not affected much by the CO but the nickel is. Therefore vote for electrolysis as the hydrogen producer of tomorrow!

Regardless of how pure the hydrogen is when it’s generated, it’s highly reactive, and very difficult to keep pure thoughtout the compression, fueling, storage, and power generation process. To actually deliver ultra-pure hydrogen to the PEM would require improvements not only in making the hydrogen, but these systems, as well.

So, I think reducing the cost of PEM fuel cells by eliminating the need for platinum, while a laudable goal, may be more complicated than just generating hydrogen gas exclusively via electrolysis

Some of the Hydrogen being used in prototype hydrogen gas fuel cell vehicles on the road today is made by electrolysis. Example: The hydrogen refueling station at Honda's research and development center in Torrance, CA. (small PDF file).

PS: Welcome to Scienceforums, and thanks for the insight into fuel cell catalysts. Best wishes for your continuing studies of power systems, etc.

[UncleAl]

Therefore vote for electrolysis as the hydrogen producer of tomorrow!

First Law of Thermodynamics. Second Law of Thermodynamics. Kilkenny cats. Where do you plan to obtain the thousands of gigawatt-hrs/year of electrical energy? Where do you dump the waste heat?

Square miles of area necessary to generate 1 GW electrical, theoretical minimum:

Area, Modality
====================
1000 biomass
300 wind
60 solar

The American Chemical Society has about 140,000 members. Essentially all of them have BS/Chem degrees; most have higher degrees. What makes you think you stumbled upon something obvious and trivial that these folks missed, over decades?

[P-man]

Well I was just making a hypothesis. ASAP, I'll try to build a PEM fuel cell with a nickel catalyst and see how it works. If it doesn't, then I'll work even harder to try and find a way to make PEM fuel cells cheaper. And have your guys been working on fuel cells 24/7?

[HydrogenBond]

The safer way to store hydrogen fuel is not as hydrogen gas but as another reduced compound. Hydrogen gas is composed of reduced hydrogen. The same be said for methane and octane, i.e., their energy value is due to reduced hydrogen. The latter have energy value which can be oxidized by oxygen, but not as much, pound for pound, as pure hydrogen. Their lower energy value makes them more stable and less explosive. However, the use of carbon creates CO2. Reduced Nitrogen compounds, like ammonia, might work but will create NOx.

Another way to store reduced hydrogen beyond hydrogen gas and reduced carbon and nitrogen, that does not have polution value, is by using small metal cations, such as within lithium hydride. This is a light weight solid at room temp. It contains a stable lithium metal cation and all its energy value is stored with the hydride or H- anion. Potassium hydride may be better. If people get careless and throw away atrophied KH fuel cells, the potassium within the cell will provide one of the components of fertilizer to the environment.

Another storage method is to use Si to store reduced H. Si is very similar to C and can support four covalent bonds. Maybe SiH4 could be used. The products of combustion are SiO or the backbone of sand, and water. SiH4 production may better coorrdinate with the use of silicon based solar collection cells. However, its complete cumbustion might lead to other problems, like friction buildup within the cylinders while partial combustion may create silicone oils.

Burning hydrogen gas within pure oxygen gas is polution free but would be very dangerous to transport, unless we also contain the oxygen in a stable intemediary state. If we instead use air for the oxygen of combustion, the very high burning temp of hydrogen and oxygen will cause atmopsheric nitrogen to indirectly get involved in the combustion process to produce NOx. Warm temp reactions of hydrogen or hydride to produce electricity are more safe and polution free.

[P-man]

Thanks for the tips, you guys.

Where do you plan to obtain the thousands of gigawatt-hrs/year of electrical energy? Where do you dump the waste heat?

In the ideal conditions for my "invention", or rather "product design", the electricity for the elctrolysis would be produced by nuclear fusion (ITER project). The electrolysis would take place on-board the car, thus practically eleminating the problems CraigD mentionned.

What is ITER?

ITER (pronounced as in "fitter") means "the way" in Latin.

ITER is the experimental step between today’s studies of plasma physics and tomorrow's electricity-producing fusion power plants.

It is based around a hydrogen plasma torus operating at over 100 million °C, and will produce 500 MW of fusion power.

It is an international project involving The People's Republic of China, the European Union and Switzerland (represented by Euratom), Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, and the United States of America, under the auspices of the IAEA.

It is technically ready to start construction and the first plasma operation is expected in 2016.

ITER is to be constructed in Europe, at Cadarache, near Aix-en-Provence, France.

http://www.iter.org/index.htm