Devinder Mahajan, a chemist at DOE's Brookhaven Nat Labs (US) was issued US Patent 6,596,423 for his development of a novel, low-temperature process of producing pure hydrogen for use in fuel cells. A major problem facing today's fuel cell technologies is that the same hydrogen that feeds the reaction often contains high levels of carbon monoxide (CO). The CO "poisons," or degrades, the platinum catalysts that convert hydrogen into electricity within the fuel cell. In Mahajan's process, a ruthenium trichloride or similar metal catalyst is mixed with a nitrogen complex to form a homogenous solution in a methanol and water mixture. The hydrogen feed containing CO is then introduced, and, at relatively low temperatures the catalyst reacts with the CO and water to convert nearly 100% of the CO into carbon dioxide and, as a side benefit, additional hydrogen.
