Idemitsu Kosan Co., one of Japan's major oil companies, has been pursuing the development of fuel cells that generate power with hydrogen extracted from low-cost kerosene. They have developed a desulfurization agent that keeps the sulfur content in kerosene to one part per thousand. It is necessary to remove sulfur from kerosene in order to extract hydrogen from it.
The company developed technology to mix desulfurization agents with metals such as nickel, and succeeded in operating a fuel cell for 4,000 hours in succession. That is longest operation of a fuel cell running on kerosene in the world.
Posted: 2002/08/26 09:57:52 AM
Japanese version