The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 28, 2002
Filed:
Sep. 29, 2000
John Paul Getty, Knoxville, TN (US);
Mark T. Orr, Kingsport, TN (US);
Jonathan Woodward, Kingston, TN (US);
Ut-Battelle, LLC, Oak Ridge, TN (US);
Abstract
The present invention is a method for the continuous production of hydrogen. The present method comprises reacting a metal catalyst with a degassed aqueous organic acid solution within a reaction vessel under anaerobic conditions at a constant temperature of ≦80° C. and at a pH ranging from about 4 to about 9. The reaction forms a metal oxide when the metal catalyst reacts with the water component of the organic acid solution while generating hydrogen, then the organic acid solution reduces the metal oxide thereby regenerating the metal catalyst and producing water, thus permitting the oxidation and reduction to reoccur in a continual reaction cycle. The present method also allows the continuous production of hydrogen to be sustained by feeding the reaction with a continuous supply of degassed aqueous organic acid solution.