MONTANA PALLADIUM RESEARCH INITIATIVE

Project Objective: The overarching objective of the Montana Palladium Research Initiative is to perform scientific research on the properties and uses of palladium in the context of the U.S. Department of Energy'AƒÂƒA‚ƒAƒÂ‚A‚‚AƒÂƒA‚‚AƒÂ‚A‚™s Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Infrastructure Technologies Program. The purpose of the research will be to explore possible palladium as an alternative to platinum in hydrogen-economy applications. To achieve this objective, the Initiatives activities will focus on several cutting-edge research approaches across a range of disciplines, including metallurgy, biomimetics, instrumentation development, and systems analysis. Background: Platinum-group elements (PGEs) play significant roles in processing hydrogen, an element that shows high potential to address this need in the U.S. and the world for inexpensive, reliable, clean energy. Platinum, however, is a very expensive component of current and planned systems, so less-expensive alternatives that have similar physical properties are being sought. To this end, several tasks have been defined under the rubric of the Montana Palladium Research Iniative. This broad swath of activities will allow progress on several fronts. The membrane-related activities of Task 1 employs state-of-the-art and leading-edge technologies to develop new, ceramic-substrate metallic membranes for the production of high-purity hydrogen, and develop techniques for the production of thin, defect-free platinummore » group element catalytic membranes for energy production and pollution control. The biomimetic work in Task 2 explores the use of substrate-attached hydrogen-producing enzymes and the encapsulation of palladium in virion-based protein coats to determine their utility for distributed hydrogen production. Task 3 work involves developing laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) as a real-time, in situ diagnostic technique to characterize PGEs nanoparticles for process monitoring and control. The systems engineering work in task 4 will determine how fuel cells AƒÂƒA‚ƒAƒÂ‚A‚‚AƒÂƒA‚‚AƒÂ‚A‚”taken as systems behave over periods of time that should show how their reformers and other subsystems deteriorate with time.« less