Patent ID: 7128769

Claim:
A fuel processing system, comprising: a reforming region containing at least one reforming catalyst bed and adapted to receive a vaporized feed stream comprising water and methanol, wherein the at least one reforming catalyst bed is an air-permeable catalyst bed that does not require shielding or isolation from air to prevent air from contacting catalyst within the bed; means for heating the reforming region to a temperature in the range of approximately 300–500° C.; a catalyst within the at least one reforming catalyst bed and adapted to catalyze the formation of a mixed gas stream comprising hydrogen gas and other gases by steam reforming of the feed stream, wherein the catalyst is non-pyrophoric, contains less than approximately 5 wt % copper oxide, is adapted to catalyze the formation of the mixed gas stream from the feed stream, and has an initial activity and a second activity after at least 1000 hours of use that is at least 75% of the initial activity; and a separation region adapted to receive the mixed gas stream and to separate the mixed gas stream into a product hydrogen stream and a byproduct stream, wherein the product hydrogen stream has at least one of a greater concentration of hydrogen gas than the mixed gas stream and a reduced concentration of at least one component of the other gases than the mixed gas stream, wherein the byproduct stream contains at least one of a lower concentration of hydrogen gas the mixed gas stream and a greater concentration of at least one component of the other gases than the mixed gas stream.