Hydrogen production for PEM fuel cells, Ch. 12, In: Production of hydrogen from renewable resources

Today, hydrogen is seen as the most convenient energy carrier for a number of applications and, particularly, for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In the specialized literature, many studies address the production of hydrogen derived from renewables. Therefore, the scope of this chapter is to review the recent findings about hydrogen generation from reforming processes of bio-sources combined with membrane reactor technology. A deep discussion is presented about the general classification of the membranes, with special attention being paid towards palladium-based membranes. Furthermore, a short overview on the representative results on the reforming of ethanol and methanol as renewable sources performed in membrane reactors is given.