We experimentally investigated the effects of magnetic fields on the heat of reaction by examining the metal—hydrogen system LaCo₅-H₂. The heat of reaction was determined in zero field and a magnetic field by the logarithmic pressure vs. inverse temperature method and the calorimetric one. Both the methods gave generally the same results that the magnetic field caused the absolute value of the heat of reaction to increase a little in the α+β region and decrease considerably in the β+y region. These agree well with the calculation based on the general formulation of magneto-thermodynamic effects in chemical reactions. This is the first observation of the magnetic field effect on the heat of reaction.

Hydrogen is produced by photosynthetic bacteria in photobioreactor using sunlight as an energy source. The major technological barrier is the limited conversion efficiency from sunlight energy to hydrogen. To avoid this problem,w e examined the two different approaches. First, we developed different types of efficient photobioreactor suitable for the characteristics of sunlight. With the inner irradiate type of photobioreactor, the conversion efficiency increased to 2.0 times as compared to that basic plane type of photobioreactor. Secondly,w e examined the mutant of which has small amount of pigments for improvement of light penetration. With using the mutant, the conversion efficiency increased to 1.5 times as compared to that of wild type of photosynthetic bacteria. Improvement of the conversion efficiency was seen in the both approaches.

Process analysis has been made for the supercritical water gasification of biomass with partial oxidation to lower the operation temperature. It was found that because of the higher yield in methane and carbon dioxide, high-pressure gas-liquid separation for carbon dioxide removal is not effective. Since part of the reaction heat is supplied inside the reactor by the partial oxidation, overall process efficiency is improved.

Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell (PEFC) is one of the promising fuel cells to get electricity effectively through reaction of hydrogen and oxygen. In general, diffusion condition of the gases in the cell give is said to much influence for its output performance. So, we have mainly investigated here for the gas diffusion effect on the cell performance by changing gas-flow groove of cell separator such as its length, width and groove numbers. In this paper, it’s successive testing results are also reported together with several discussions.

Methanol and hydrocarbon fuels are the candidates of hydrogen source for PEFCs. However the reformed H₂ gas contains CO formed by reverse Shift-reaction and the PEFC electrode reaction is poisoned by the small amount of CO. Au/TiO₂ and Au/AlO₃ catalysts have been studied for CO selective oxidation in the reformed gas, but the CO selectivity is not enough. Therefore, to promote CO selective oxidation, the effects of Se additive and supporting materials have been investigated. The catalysts were immersed in aqueous SeO₂ in order to get Se additive. The activity of CO oxidation in H₂,C0,0₂ (2:2:1) mixture gas was examined at 0℃ .Characteristic of Se added Au/TiO₂ was analyzed by XAFS (X-ray Absorption Fine Structure). Addition of Se (Se/Au=2~3%) promoted CO selectivity in such mixture gas. TiO₂ supported catalysts have higher CO selectivity than Al₂O₃ supported catalysts.

The negative electorode catalyst in a newly-proposed thermo-regenerative fuel cell, consisting of 2-propanol dehydrogenation (H-atom generation) and acetone hydrogenation (H-atom comsumption), is required to be active for 2-propanol dehydrogenation and hydrogen spillover to carbon support, which is essential to convert low-quality heat (lower than 100℃ )into electric energy directly. TEM-images and XRD-spectra analyses revealed that the palladium metal particles supported on porous activated carbon exhibited a bimodal size distribution. The carbon-supported Pd-Ru composite catalyst prepared by a coimpregnation method gave extinct bimetallic effects in these catalytic abilities, as compared with its component palladium or ruthenium particles in addition to its better electrochemical performance than the Pt-Ru composite catalyst.

Recently a fuel cell system that is clean and efficient has been expected as an on-site, mobile and/or vehicles power source. These days, a research and development of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) has been extending in various fields, such as catalysis, electrolytes, electrode structure and fuel cell engineering. The DMFC technologies are similar to those of polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC), however, there are serious technical issues such as methanol cross-leak and lower anode catalyst activity. In this paper, recent progress and technical issues of DMFC will be explained with our experimental result.

Biological hydrogen production has been carried out to develop a renewable and environmentally acceptable energy source. Hydrogen production by photosynthetic bacteria and cyanobacteria is one approach that has been investigated extensively. Double phase photobioreactor was used to increase hydrogen production from marine photosynthetic bacteria. The hydrogen production was enhanced 5 times higher than the conventional reactors. Marine cyanobacteral strains in the genus Cyanothece at ourculture collection were dividedinto two groups by resulting from hydrogen production rates and phylogenetic analysis using 16S rDNA. Floating culture using floating materials (coal fly ash block: CFAB) and adhesive marine cyanobacterial of Synechococcus sp. was successfully performed in an artificial medium. Cell growth on surface of CFAB was enhanced in the seawater as compared with the artificial medium.

To supply fuel hydrogen for FCV (fuel cell vehicles) efficiently, cost effectively, and with low carbon dioxide discharge, liquefied hydrogen supply system from steel making off-gas especially COG (Coke Oven Gas) was studied. From the point of view of available supply amount, supply cost, energy efficiency, hydrogen from the steel making process was found to have superiority in comparison with other hydrogen sources and supply systems. As for the storage and transportation of hydrogen from production plant to supply station, compressed hydrogen and liquefied hydrogen was studied. In consequence of that, liquefied hydrogen was found to have superiority.