One of the major problems with the hydrogen economy includes the need for methods to produce cheap hydrogen and the cost of setting up distribution stations. At the EERL we are working on developing novel methods for the production of hydrogen for distribution stations as well as in situ hydrogen generators. We are currently focused on developing novel electrolyzers which use diverse fuels or waste waters and electrical power to produce hydrogen. The electrolyzers consumed low energy, low power, and produce a stream of pure hydrogen. The advantage of the electrolyzers when compared to other hydrogen production methods (e.g., natural gas reforming) are: 1. no hydrogen purification required, 2. low operating temperatures, and 3. in-situ hydrogen generation.

Our main contribution to this area is on the development of electrode materials that will be able to oxidize the different fuels at potentials as close as possible to the thermodynamics conditions to reduce the energy consumption.

The electrodes developed for this application are made using efficient plating techniques which significantly reduce the loadings of precious metals on the electrodes. The electrodes developed in the lab are characterized using polarization techniques. Rotating disk electrodes are used for determining kinetics, and transport properties. The kinetics, thermodynamics, and transport properties can be determined by using polarization techniques combined with mathematical modeling and modeling discrimination techniques.