From: Eugene Leitl (eugene.leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Date: Wed Jun 02 1999 - 23:18:35 MDT
Chuck Kuecker writes:
> Thank you. Although the links still seem to be talking 'reforming' rather
> than using the methane directly. I guess reforming methane loses much less
You can use methanol directly in low-temperature fuel cells. Methane,
you can't. You can metabolize methane directly in high temperature
fuel cells though, the additional advantantage being that you can
then use nickel for electrodes. If fuel cells catch on, Pt/Pd prices
are going to skyrocket...
> energy than, say, reforming gasoline. We are getting there, little by little.
The chiefest problem with reforming higher alcanes is a) the surface
of the reforming catalysator gets mucked up progressively b) it's
difficult to keep the CO content low (it should be present as
traces only), and CO poisons the Pt/Pd electrode surface at the
temperatures used (you're limited by the polymer electrolyt here).
'gene
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