Argonne Technology Wins R&D 100 Award

Argonne researchers have won an R&D 100 Award for developing a catalyst that may help bring environmentally friendly electric cars to the marketplace. These awards are given annually by R&D Magazine to the 100 most significant technical products of the year.

Before fuel cells replace spark plugs and cylinders under the hoods of 21st Century cars, scientists must find a practical and economical way to supply the hydrogen gas needed to power them.

Chemical engineers at Argonne have developed and patented a system to do just that -- a compact fuel processor "re-forms" ordinary gasoline into a hydrogen-rich gas to power the fuel cell.

"You can think of fuel cells as batteries that can be operated continuously by supplying fuel," said engineer Shabbir Ahmed. Fuel cells convert hydrogen gas into electricity and water. They are clean and efficient compared to internal combustion engines.

Argonne researchers Ahmed and Mike Krumpelt led a team that developed a reformer and catalyst for use in the fuel processor of an automotive fuel cell system. This will enable fuel cell cars to operate on gasoline, but achieve more miles per gallon than cars with internal-combustion engines.

They built an inexpensive, easy-to-manufacture fuel-reforming device similar to catalytic converters used in cars today. Vaporized fuel is mixed with steam and air and sent through a catalyst-packed device. The process releases hydrogen to feed the fuel cell.

The researchers turned to Argonne's more than 20 years of research in fuel-cell technology for new catalyst ideas. They developed the award-winning catalyst based on a unique combination of certain metals and an oxygen-conducting ceramic material. When the fuel-air mix contacts the catalyst, hydrogen is released from the fuel at temperatures several hundred degrees lower than in conventional devices.

Researchers are testing an engineering-scale reformer that produces about one-fifth the amount of hydrogen needed for a conventional car — a major step towards the realization of commercially available, fuel-cell-powered automobiles. Commercial developers will build full-scale units.

The reformer and catalyst efficiently convert a wide variety of hydrocarbon fuels and has demonstrated excellent resistance to sulfur in the fuel.

Argonne licensed the catalyst technology to Süd-Chemie Inc. (formerly United Catalysts Inc.) Süd-Chemie has been the leading developer and manufacturer of catalysts for the production of hydrogen from hydrocarbons for more than 50 years.

Research funding was provided by the Department of Energy.