New hydrodesulfurization catalyst for petroleum-fed fuel cell vehicles and cogenerations

Based on the newly found autoregenerative Ni/ZnO catalyst, a practical adsorptive hydrodesulfurization (HDS) catalyst of kerosene for the fuel cell (FC) was developed and evaluated. The content of surface Ni on the Ni/ZnO catalyst is fixed from the balance between the poisoning rate and the regenerating rate. From the results of the long run, 13% Ni/ZnO catalyst was certified as an adsorptive HDS catalyst for the kerosene-fed FC, which will keep less than 0.03 wt ppm of average sulfur for 1 year, consuming 36% of ZnO. When this catalyst is applied, a 1-year operation of the petroleum-fed FC cogenerations and a 1110 thousand-km running of the model FC vehicles are considered possible.