A hydrogen separator company has received funding to begin work on a fuel cell separator for sulphur, in a new approach towards making fuel cells more widely available.

Power and Energy has been given funding from the US Navy to investigate alternatives for developing a palladium alloy membrane hydrogen separator, in order to avoid the damage caused to fuel cells by sulphur.

The aim is to develop a diesel fuel processing system which is capable of tolerating and removing the sulphur impurities in the diesel fuel, so as to be able to use fuel cells with hydrogen from diesel fuels.

The research is expected to take a new approach to the problem by developing a membrane that will tolerate higher levels of sulphur, as opposed to the more usual route of attempting to remove sulphur at the beginning of the fuel processing cycle.

The US Navy hopes to then use the hydrogen fuel cells in its ships.

The development would also have a number of uses in commercial and industrial applications, since many vehicles with diesel engines would be able to use fuel cell auxiliary power units.

Fuel cells could also be used for emergency power fuelled with diesel fuel or home heating oil, while in the longer term the membranes could enable the use of other renewable fuels as sources of hydrogen for fuel cells.