01/28/2004 - HydrogenSource Demonstrates New Noble Metal Water Gas Shift Catalysts for Fuel Processing and Hydrogen Generation Applications

SOUTH WINDSOR, CT, Jan 28, 2004 -- HydrogenSource LLC, a leading developer of fuel processor systems, today announced that it has demonstrated the viability of new advanced noble metal Water Gas Shift (WGS) catalysts as cost effective components in fuel processor systems for fuel cell and hydrogen generation applications.

Fuel processing is one of the most economical and convenient approaches to convert hydrocarbon fuels, as well as oxygenates like ethanol, to hydrogen either to power fuel cells or for other hydrogen applications. A critical step in fuel processing is water gas shift, which reduces carbon monoxide while boosting hydrogen content.

Conventional WGS catalysts use base metals like copper-zinc. Although commercially mature, they require large volumes and suffer from transportation issues due to their self-heating nature.

HydrogenSource evaluated new generation, proprietary noble metal water gas shift catalysts under a joint development agreement with Süd-Chemie Inc. and United Technologies Research Center. The catalysts demonstrated high activities performance for both high and low temperature water gas shift reactors, and sustained performance over many thousands of hours, also in the presence of sulfur.

Endurance data shows that the noble metal WGS reactors will be very compact and cost competitive compared to base metal reactors, being 10 times smaller with a similar reactor cost for a same capacity unit. Furthermore, the new proprietary WGS catalysts will be safer and easier to handle, since they do not have the self-heating and handling issues associated with the base metal catalysts.

Recently, these advanced noble metal catalysts have been successfully incorporated into many of HydrogenSource’s new products, including the 5 kWe Vega 5TM and the 150 kWe stationary platforms, which also employ HydrogenSource’s proprietary Catalytic Partial Oxidation (CPO) technology.

“Our technology advancements allow us to offer fuel cell developers a lower cost and compact FPS with outstanding durability”, said Fran Kocum, Vice President of Technology at HydrogenSource. “HydrogenSource is proud of these accomplishments and pleased with the collaboration with Süd-Chemie, who has taken a non-exclusive license of HydrogenSource’s noble metal WGS process technology. The new WGS catalysts are an enabling technology for our new products including a compact and cost effective auxiliary power unit (APU).”

Jon P. Wagner, Global Industry Group Manager, Fuel Cell Catalyst Technologies at Süd-Chemie said, “Süd-Chemie is pleased with our collaboration with HydrogenSource and the successful demonstration of our new proprietary WGS catalysts under real FPS conditions is a significant milestone. With this demonstration, Süd-Chemie continues to be a leading catalyst technology supplier to the emerging fuel processing market“.

HydrogenSource LLC develops fuel processing solutions for the transportation and stationary fuel cell markets, as well as hydrogen generators for the merchant hydrogen and other non-fuel cell markets. Headquartered in South Windsor, Connecticut in the U.S., it also has research alliances in Japan and Europe. HydrogenSource is a joint venture company formed by Shell Hydrogen U.S., a division of Shell Oil Products U.S. and UTC Fuel Cells, a part of the UTC Power unit of United Technologies Corporation.

Süd-Chemie Inc., based in Louisville KY, is a member of the Süd-Chemie Group which consists of 60 production and sales companies throughout Europe, America, Africa and Asia. The Süd-Chemie Group is active in the adsorbents and catalysts sectors and has over sixty years of experience in the development and manufacture of catalysts for the production of hydrogen.

United Technologies Research Center is the central research organization for United Technologies Corporation. The Research Center maximizes its contributions to the corporation’s business objectives for increasingly profitable top line growth through a focus on innovation.

Media Contact:
Ignacio Aguerrevere
860/987-5006
60 Bidwell Road
South Windsor, Connecticut 06074
www.hydrogensource.com