Hydrogen Production with Steam Reforming of Dimethyl Ether

1Introduction Steam reforming of methanol and gasoline is actively researched and developed as hydrogen supply methods for the fuel cells of vehicles and so on. However, these materials have the problems such as the infrastructure, toxicity, difficulty of the reforming, and so forth. Dimethyl ether (DME) does not contain the poisonous substances, and is expected as a clean fuel of the next generation. DME is able to take the place of light oil and LPG, and its physical properties are similar to those of LPG. There is possibility that DME infrastructures will be settled more rapidly than those of hydrogen and methanol, because LPG infrastructures existing are able to use for DME. Then, we have been studying on steam reforming of DME for the hydrogen production.