Methanol Fuel Cell

The direct methanol fuel cell dmfc has been considered as the ideal fuel cell system since it produces electric power by the direct conversion of the methanol fuel at the fuel cell anode.

Methanol fuel cell.

During operation the cell consumes water at the anode and then produces it at the cathode so water must. The cell uses a polymer membrane electrode similar to that used in the proton exchange membrane fuel cell. Reformed methanol fuel cell rmfc or indirect methanol fuel cell imfc systems are a subcategory of proton exchange fuel cells where the fuel methanol ch 3 oh is reformed before being fed into the fuel cell rmfc systems offer advantages over direct methanol fuel cell dmfc systems including higher efficiency smaller cell stacks no water management better operation at low. Proton exchange membrane fuel cells pemfcs and direct methanol fuel cells dmfcs are promising power sources from portable electronic devices to vehicles.

Common operating temperatures are in the range 50 120 c where high temperatures are usually pressurized dmfcs themselves are more efficient at high temperatures and. Although there is considerable development work being done on the catalyst especially to reduce the amount of catalyst and the mea and the handling of high concentrations of methanol without mea crossover it still lacks a high power density. From start up smart fuel cell gmbh to international successful german mittelstand provider of hybrid power solutions with hydrogen and methanol fuel cells more than 45 000 fuel cells sold worldwide a total of 6 5 million kwh of environmentally friendly electricity saving 3 600 tons of co2. The direct methanol fuel cell is a low temperature cell that is capable of operating with liquid methanol supplied directly to its anode.

The high cost issue of these low temperature fuel cells can be primarily addressed by using platinum group metal pgm free oxygen reduction reaction orr catalysts in particular atomically dispersed metal nitrogen carbon m n c. Paul breeze in fuel cells 2017. About 3 in mass to carry the reactant into the cell. Methanol is an excellent hydrogen carrier fuel packing more hydrogen in this simple alcohol molecule than can be found in liquified hydrogen.

This is more attractive than the conventional hydrogen fuelled cells particularly for transportation applications which rely on bulky and often unresponsive reformer systems to convert methanol or other.