An Overview of Hydrogen Generation and Storage for Low-Temperature PEM Fuel Cells

Abstract

Successful deployment of man-portable, low-temperature proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells depends on finding a suitable hydrogen fuel that is easily stored and transported, inexpensive, readily available, safe, and practical for use in light and compact vessels. Because storage of hydrogen as a compressed gas in metal cylinders is inefficient and heavy, many alternative methods to store hydrogen have been investigated. This report lists several technologies for the storage and generation of hydrogen and provides brief descriptions.

Literature Review of Fuel Processing

“…. Permeation of hydrogen through a Pd-based membrane, in which (1) represents reversible dissociative chemisorption of hydrogen, (2) represents dissolution of atomic hydrogen, and (3) represents bulk diffusion of atomic hydrogen through the membrane 7 Figure 2. Conceptual block diagrams for fuel processing: A) A conventional fuel processing for diesel or JP-8, and B) Fuel processmg for methanol 11 Tables Table 1. Characteristics of various fuels for fuel reformation Table 2.…”

“…Another drawback is the source of hydrogen. An overview of several strategies of hydrogen generation and storage for PEM fuel cell has been reported previously [2]. Meanwhile, hydrogen is industrially produced by steam reforming of hydrocarbons such as methane, methanol, naphtha oil, etc [3][4][5].…”