An Environmentally-Friendly Process for Fuel Cell Electrode Reclamation

If society is to meet its objective of sustainable growth, then issues relating to energy conservation and environmental stewardship need to be in the forefront of engineering concerns. It has been proposed that both energy efficiency and the environment can be improved by switching to hydrogen as an energy carrier in our economy. While production of hydrogen introduces some environmental and cost issues, the overall impact on air pollution should be positive because of the lack of emissions at point-of-use during combustion of the fuel; the only by-product is water. By comparison, elaborate pollution control strategies, both in engine design and operation and in exhaust clean-up via catalytic removal of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen, and particulate matter in the case of diesel, are needed to enable us to use liquid fossil fuels for transportation.