Autonomous Hydrogen Production for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells PEMFC

This paper focuses on hydrogen production for green mobility applications (other applications are currently under investigation). Firstly, a brief state of the art of hydrogen generation by hydrolysis with magnesium is shown. The hydrolysis performance of Magnesium powder ball–milled along with different additives (graphite and transition metals TM = Ni, Fe, and Al) is taken for comparison. The best performance was observed with Mg–10 wt.% g mixtures (95% of theoretical hydrogen generation yield in about 3 min). An efficient solution to control this hydrolysis reaction is proposed to produce hydrogen on demand and to feed a PEM fuel cell. Tests on a bench fitted with a 100 W Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell have demonstrated the technological potential of this solution for electric assistance applications in the field of light mobility.