Electrolysis of humidified methane to hydrogen and carbon dioxide at low temperatures and voltages

Considerable amounts of hydrogen are produced from fossil fuels. In recent years, natural gas and biogas have received attention as important feedstocks for hydrogen production, because methane, their main component, is hydrogen rich and readily available. Methane steam reforming is the major industrial route for hydrogen production, but requires high temperature due to endothermic nature of the reaction. This report presents a new green technology for the efficient and ecological production of hydrogen from methane. A humidified methane was electrolyzed to hydrogen and carbon dioxide at low onset cell voltages (ca. 0.3–0.4 V), depending on the temperature (150–250 °C). Almost all currents were used for the production of hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Hydroxyl radicals generated from water vapor during the electrolysis played an important role as an active oxygen for the methane oxidation reaction at the anode. This is the first report on the production of hydrogen from methane at both low temperatures and voltages.