The hydrogen economy is strongly dependent from the solution of three main tasks: Production; Storage; Distribution.

The present talk deals with the production of hydrogen through the catalytic decomposition of light hydrocarbons, particularly, methane. A catalyst, without precious metals and very low specific surface area, has been synthesized, characterized and tested at laboratory scale. It is able to decompose methane at temperatures that are close to the thermodynamic value (≈ 500°C) without any evidence of poisoning by amorphous and/or graphitic carbon. Carbon produced from the decomposition is 100% as multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Results obtained will be presented and some evidences related to the particular mechanism involved, not so familiar in the heterogeneous catalysis, will be discussed.