A palladium alloy membrane has helped to deliver a major improvement in the amount of hydrogen that can be produced from ethanol.

Power and Energy has announced that its palladium alloy membrane reactor technology has enabled it to extract over 90 per cent of the available hydrogen from ethanol.

According to the company, its energy efficient fuel processor is able to operate with a broad variety of alternative fuels including bio-fuels, ethanol, butanol and bio-diesel.

The announcement could provide a major opportunity for fuel cell development, as one of the major barriers to the large-scale creation of portable fuel cells is the storage of hydrogen.

By being able to extract a significant amount of hydrogen from ethanol, it means portable fuel cells can be far smaller because they will need to carry less ethanol.

Source:

Power And Energy's Breakthrough Fuel Processor Recovers More Than 90 Percent of the Hydrogen From Ethanol, 21/06/07
http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/view_release.php?id=17200

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