Rhodium-cerium catalysts are being used to help transform renewable energy resources such as vegetable oil into hydrogen-rich gas.

Scientists in the US have developed a system which uses the catalysts to deliver the gas, which can then be used in fuel cells or converted into synthetic fuels and industrial chemicals, all in an environmentally-friendly way.

The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) has reported that the experts use oil droplets, sprayed onto a ceramic foam cylinder coated with the rhodium-cerium catalyst, heated at temperatures above 800ºc.

The high temperatures mean that the oil vaporises quickly, leaving no time for soot to form. As a result, the catalyst does not get clogged up with soot and this means that the technology could be useful in developing fuel cells by considerable increasing their efficiency.

Scientists are now hoping to use this technique to improve the use of biomass as an energy source.

Co-author, Paul Dauenhauer, explained to the RSC's Chemistry World: "We hope that people will look at this reaction and think it might be a better way of using biomass."

Ÿ Adfero Ltd