The President's hydrogen car comments in his State-of-the-Union address were somewhat surprising to persons aware of the energy costs of hydrogen; the formidable challenges posed by a large scale hydrogen infra-structure; and the negative aspects of reforming natural gas, methanol or heavier hydrocarbons as part of an automotive power train. In fact, most automotive engineers viewed hydrogen fuel cell (PEM type) cars as quite unlikely in view of the progress in electrical hybrids.

However, developments in a catalytic decomposition—membrane separation process appears to have changed the landscape regarding the energy costs in obtaining hydrogen from water. A team of scientists from Argonne Nat'l Lab and the NETL in Pittsburgh have been awarded a patent that describes a "cost-effective means of producing hydrogen". The US Patent Number is 6,468,499 and was issued on 22 October 2002. Inventors are Balachandran, Dorris, & Lee; of Argonne Nat'l Lab and Bose & Stiegal of the DoE's NETL at Pittsburgh.

Key to the new process is a complex membrane structure which includes a catalytic metal for an initial decomposition of water (steam) at temperatures in a rather wide range of 600 C to 1700 C. Reportedly a system operating at about 900 C performs well. Catalyst metals include Platinum, palladium, nickel, niobium, cobalt, et al and possible combinations. Part of the structure are mixed electron and proton conducting ceramic membranes which facilitates the separation of ionized hydrogen from the formed hydrogen-oxygen mix.

As with the metals a rather wide array of ceramic materials have shown varying capabilities. Barium-Cerium-Yttrium (BCY) composites made by combining barium carbonate with cerium and yttrium oxides. This ceramic was combined with nickel powder to construct a working composite membrane. Physical structures as well as the chemical compositions of the composite membranes are key to producing hydrogen in usable quantities.