Patent ID: 8262896

Claim:
A method of producing hydrogen comprising: providing a steam feed stream at one side of a porous redox stable substrate, contacting said steam feed stream with a proton conducting membrane supported on the other side of said porous redox stable substrate, through said substrate, said membrane being substantially non-permeable to molecular gas and to oxide ions, applying a DC voltage across an anode coupled to the substrate side of said membrane and a cathode coupled to the other side of said membrane so as to dissociate at least part of said steam feed stream therebetween, into protonic hydrogen and oxygen at said anode, allowing said protonic hydrogen to pass through said membrane and form molecular hydrogen at said cathode, and collecting said molecular hydrogen, wherein the membrane comprises a material prepared with the use of a sintering aid comprising at least one of Zn doped oxide, Al 2 O 3 , Bi 2 O 3 and/or an oxide of a first row transition element.