Researchers and developers seeking to usher in the age of the fuel cell are looking at ways to refine a pure source of hydrogen, which scientists say will provide a wide range of industrial benefits beyond the capacity to power vehicles.

Yi Hua Ma, a chemical engineering professor at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts, USA, says the use of palladium membranes provides the most effective response to the problem.

Professor Ma and a six-man team have been given a $1.5 million grant by Shell International Exploration and Production Inc. to discover a way to minimise the amounts of palladium used in the process of separating hydrogen from gaseous mixtures.

Although palladium is an excellent membrane for the process, its cost is proving to be a major potential stumbling block in the path of fuel cell technology's rise.

In order to combat the problem, Professor Ma is seeking to develop ultra-thin palladium and palladium alloy films to increase the flow of hydrogen and thus reduce the amount spent on palladium.

WPI associate provost and vice president for research William W. Durgin said 'this is one of the largest single grants in this line of research, and one of the largest palladium membrane research groups in the world'.

'It complements work being done in WPI's Fuel Cell Centre, which together with the palladium membrane research could have a direct and dramatic impact on the direction of society in decades to come.'

The development offers a host of applications in addition to the demand within the fuel cell industry, offering a method of reformulating gasoline, refining crude oil and also helping to meet major industrial uses of hydrogen, as for example, in space shuttles.