The fuel reformation

Researchers from the Universities of Leeds and Bath, along with a team from Imperial College, are working on a method which should make it easier to produce hydrogen from methane.

Stripping the carbon away from methane to leave molecular hydrogen is a well-known process, known as reforming. If the methane is brought into contact with steam at a high temperature, three reactions can occur.

Methane can be converted into carbon monoxide and hydrogen, with the CO itself reacting with the steam to produce carbon dioxide and water; and the methane can be converted directly to carbon dioxide and hydrogen.

However, all three reactions are reversible. This means that in a system containing all five chemical compounds — methane, water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and hydrogen — the constituents will continually break up and recombine, but the proportion of each will be more or less constant and will depend on the temperature of the system.