Efficient production of purified hydrogen via low temperature water-gas-shift reaction

Methane derived hydrogen contains copious amount of CO in the presence of which is detrimental to catalysts used in PEM fuel cells. A single-site organo metallic complex that dissolves in liquid phase to efficiently catalyze water-gas-shift (WGS) reaction under very mild conditions was developed. The catalyst was evaluated in batch mode by dissolving in a methanol/water mixture to process synthesis gas with high turnover numbers at ≤ 80°C and < 1 MPa to yield a gas mixture that is essentially devoid of CO. Ni, Ru, Rh, Co, and Pt all showed formate decomposition activity but the rates were too slow as indicated by the reaction time. Ru complexes activated by a base were highly active single-site transition catalysts that operates at < 150°C and ∼ 2000 kPa and achieved almost complete CO removal via WGS reaction in a reaction time of less than a few minutes. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 4th Topical Conference on Natural Gas Utilization at the 2004 AIChE National Spring Meeting (New Orleans, LA, 4/25-29/2004).